Castlevania: Dreams of the Heart
by BleedingHeartsoftheWorldUnite
Summary: If mentioning Satan's imminent return wasn't enough, then telling him that he could put an end to his immortal curse would do it. Even after all these years, Gabriel Belmont was as easy as ever... Sequel to the game "Lords of Shadows". Not a slash fic
1. Chapter One: Part One

The streets below were glowing with radiant light impossible to see with the capacity of human eyesight, the asphalt glittering like endless heaps of princess-cut diamond in the rain. Murky cumulonimbus encircled the city like a haggard vulture in the sky, the full-bellied moon chipping itself away behind their gossamer curtain. Car alarms, traffic, and the other sounds that filled the symphony that was city life were faint, as if they existed on another plane of existence. The heady smell of fresh blood was rampant as it flowed freely from the veins of the frail creature in the vampire's arms, the host's heartbeat getting harder and harder to hear as the life was drained out of the gently shuddering body. The vampire known as Dracula, once the man Gabriel Belmont, groaned softly into a delicate ear as he felt the flash of pure silver slipping through his frosted skin...

Thunder cracked the sky, lightening illuminating the simple, saintly face of a granite woman, the candlelight flickering across the breaded face of gray man. The mother holding her son stared ahead, forbidding and condemning in the night. Hundreds upon hundreds of candles were lit, the flames licking the low wicks of exhausted wax sticks. The sound of a rusted, unused metal gate creaked open in protest as a shadow passed the moonlit threshold before closing itself. Walking unseen in the dark, the cloaked figure traversed the fine red carpet, ignoring the handsome and neat rows of the dark wooded pews, columns and columns of pillars going unheeded, turning right at the life-sized crucified Christ hung upon the altar. Breaking down the solid stone wall, dust clouds dancing in the air, the figure proceeded through the rubble, mice squeaking on the ground as they scurried away to hide. Stopping in the middle of a broken down, stairless tower with floors at least ten feet apart, the figure paid little to no attention to the boarded up windows, floating through the air to land ever so gently on the topmost floor. Trotting along to see the most glorious stained glass window, a thick layer of cobweb covering the walls almost entirely, the figure stopped in the middle of the room and drew back his hood.

An older gentlemen with ice blue eyes and a uniform white buzz cut with an orderly beard, he gave the area a quick sweep, "An unusual hiding place, for the Prince of Darkness. Don't you think?"

Looking to the side at a majestic high-backed chair, a curve of torn blood-red trailing down the rectangular steps, a low, aloof voice answered the man, "Zobek..."

He gave a brief nod, confirming his identity, "Yes, old friend, it is I."

"Where have you been, all this time?" In the shadows, a pale white hand with skin the color of death and nails short enough that they hadn't yet begun to curl under scratched the arm of the chair, the arm cut into the shape of a woman's head.

"Out there, amongst the living." Zobek inclined his head at the window, coming closer to the man swathed in shadows, "And what of you? Why have you been hiding all this time... Gabriel?"

Angered, the 'man' propelled himself forward into the light; his shirtless form gray and aged, "Don't you dare call me that! Eu sunt Dracul!"

Just then, the thunder cracked again, illuminating the man he used to be before he sat back in the darkness. Walking away from him, occasionally looking back, the old man spoke again.

"No doubt you once were, but alas... look at you now, a mere shadow of your former self," Turning to look back at the other man, he could only see the blanket falling.

Voice echoing all around the area, Zobek searched for the source, "Shadow am I?... What do you want... old friend?"

Continuing as if nothing had changed, he told him why he was there, "Satan's acolytes are readying for his imminent return. He's unlikely to welcome both of us with open arms, don't you think? Help me stop him... or you and I will be his favorite pets, for all eternity. It is time to get out of this wretched tomb you've made for yourself! Stop skulking in the shadows! Don't you care that he will enslave you?"

Appearing from thin air, he grabbed the man in his arms, poised to bite his neck, but Zobek disappeared from his clutches, reappearing behind the vampire. Launching a kind of energy blast, Zobek pushed the vampire out of the window, shattering it so the individual fragments fell along side his body, the pieces catching in the light and the vampire's skirt flapping as he flew through the air. Landing in the middle of the road, on all fours, the ground indenting under him, giant slabs of the street cracked. Cars hit the brakes, screeching to sudden stops so that they didn't hit the oddly dressed man in the middle of the road. Onlookers gathering with umbrella in hand, the vampire stood, hunched over, as Zobek gracefully hovered down to the down in front of him.

"I know what it is you yearn for..." He gave his head the slightest of bobs.

He studied the man for a minute, "I cannot die... yet. I cannot live."

"Help me, and I can free you of your immortality," Laying the final offer out, Zobek waited.

Crying out, he transformed himself into mist. The old man, so respectable looking, watched him go before leaving himself, "Soon old friend, soon... it will be over."

The ancient Necromancer and death incarnate, the elderly looking Zobek, had called out to his "old friend" for help against the Prince of Darkness, knowing exactly how to bait the reluctant creature of the night into joining his cause. If mentioning Satan's imminent return wasn't enough, then telling him that he could put an end to his immortal curse would do it. Even after all these years, Gabriel Belmont was as easy as ever...

So there was a way to end this... This CURSE? Immortality was such a hollow existence; to live alone, unable to be truly alive, and to be gifted with the unkillibility was a nightmare after centuries of scouring the deepest shadows of the darkest corners of the world. If nothing else, the loneliness was the worst part of it. Of course, he could easily make a companion, learning so long ago that the vampire who had made him was lying to be free of the curse herself, but who was he to do this another? Even fallen from the light to the pit of hell with all traces of humanity stripped away, he knew that he had no right to do such a cruel thing to another... He had lost his heart so long ago, but the dim remnants of his life as a human lingered to remind him of what he was before. No... His heart died before he became this monster, so much longer than that... It died when he lost his wife, his beloved Marie.

Haunted by the past, and by his fate, Dracula decided that, even though Zobek had used him in the past, he would answer the necromancer's summons and would embark on the journey... Even slavery seemed a better fate than this life...

Watching the cars blur by in watery colors, Zobek waited for a disturbance in the drizzle; the slightest hint that he was not alone. It had been harder to track Gabriel down than he had initially thought it would be, about a decade longer than originally anticipated, but now that he had found him, the last piece was in place: The game was just beginning! Chains rattled behind the ageless elder, a hazy figure in a deep crimson cloak fazing through a moaning swing set to stand apart from his 'gracious' host.

"You came," It was a statement of fact, not a question or betrayal of doubt, "I knew you would, old friend."

The vampire looked at him, knowing that once, he might have laughed hollowly at the summoner of the dead, "I have nothing... No reason to live, and hardly a reason to die. I came here seeking a purpose."

"Have you strength enough?" The modern man suspected that the ancient one would have lived off less than his share of blood, judging by the man that he used to be.

"Your assumptions serve you well," Dracula had in fact lived off far less blood than he should have; he ate only what he required, and not a drop more than that.

It was obvious, if you looked at him. His skin was gaunt, rubbery, and had none of that immortal luster of the others that he had met. But there was no mystery why he looked that way - He needed to feed. Time was now short, so they had to move quickly; Dracula could gather his strength back on the road ahead...

"Zobek, how are we supposed to stop HIM this time?" Dracula had always expected Lucifer to rise again, yet he had no idea of a means to preventing his reign over mankind.

Zobek smiled, his bluish-white eyes gleaming with joy at the very thought, "There is a ritual that will seal him... A complicated blending of the dark arts will be required to cast the spell... But you needn't worry, old friend, there will be no need for you to sully your hands with_ that_. No, you need to unlock the pathway... The items you need are held by the Gorgon Medusa, a rather playful Succubus, and the mighty Chaos."

Dracula had heard the humans speak of them, but he never thought that they were real creatures... But then again, man thought that he was nothing but myth, yet here here he stood, plain as day. Speaking of man, he glanced around at the glittering light that was the human city; just how would this affect the humans? There was a time when Dracula would have cared for the fate of man, but now he was merely concerned for the sake of his food supply. Sensing his thoughts, the necromancer continued his explanation.

"They will be none the wiser if we succeed with our little venture," He himself didn't care at all for the humans one way or another.

Dracula was curious at how this could be possible, "How is this possible?"

Annoyed by how little he had learned over time, Death bit it back and told the vampire blankly, "The first item you must find lies away from the city. It will take you to another dimension."

"Another dimension?" He had never thought to consider that that was where all of the surviving monsters hid.

"When man grew wiser and crueler, the so-called monsters of the world began to take refuge and hide in their own worlds. Over the course of time, they split completely from the world, drifting off in separate directions," Zobek felt as if he were talking to a child. A child that could tear his arms off without a single effort, but a child none the less.

Dracula understood, walking away from the necromancer, stopping to ask one last question, "What am I looking for?

His papery lips curled up, "The Necronomicon will guide you on your path. Good luck, Gabriel..."

And he vanished, just like that. Irritated to be called by that name, Dracula turned to leave the playground only to find himself surrounded by creatures he had long since thought extinct. No doubt a message from Lucifer saying that all of the night's children were merely in hiding. Killing the pack of lycans with his whip, a demonic replica of the holy 'Vampire Killer' Combat Cross, Dracula put the whip away on a holster in his belt. Expecting only two waves of the beasts, he was not counting on a giant warg to bound up behind him. Dispersing himself into mist, he let the gigantic canine creature pass through his body. Snarling, the warg reared up on its hind legs, howling at the moon. Hundreds of lesser lycans answered the call, boxing the vampire in. Ready to fight his way out, a far-off figure clad in toffee-brown tossed a silver ball over his retreating back. Landing in the sandbox, the ball burst into a billion minute pieces, a million shards spraying out to kill every last lycan and warg gathered. Not a single shard of silver pierced Dracula, every last sliver whizzed passed him as if in slow motion.

Just who was that man? Why did he interfere? Contemplating the possibilities, Dracula left the park, making it nothing but a distant memory...

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><p>Ok, I'm back and butchering a whole new franchise! Seriously though, I really do love Castlevania (even if my only experience was Symphony of the Night and Lords of Shadow)! I'm trying something a little different here, so please try to bare with me. I want this to be a sequel to Lord's of Shadow, because that game really needs one, and because I want to develop video games, I'm trying to write an entire game! Maybe a bit ambitious, but... Anyways, on to more technical issues! I've heard that this game is a reboot, and there ARE a number of openings, so... Yeah. As for "naming" Gabriel, I personally like his name, but for continuities sake, I am not going to use his name (too much). The reason why I'm calling him Dracula is because, in my curiosity, I translated "Eu sunt Dracul", in Google translate, using Romanian, which was the closest match I could find that actually made sense, and it said "I am Dracula", so yeah. I first heard of the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead series, and starting with 'necro', and being a book of evil, I thought that it would make a good fit. Feedback helps me get better at writing, and if get better, I can give my readers a better product, so some r&amp;r would be nice...<p> 


	2. Chapter One: Part Two

Before Dracula left the desecrated and graffitied park, he looked closely at the back side of his hand, pearly white in the moonlight and almost translucent from his meager diet. Thin traces of black veins netted together underneath his skin, the blood of his victims flowing clearly if he really concentrated on the pattern of flesh and its underlying network of sprawling arteries. His broad dead-white body was drawn tight to his stabbing bones and full muscle, exactly like an old man's body would look if he had lived to age for hundreds of years, and his long hair was a matted mess of gray, silver, and white string that swung from his bare shoulders, not unlike the full black hair of the fallen angel Lucifer. He was not a vain man, he never had been, but the vampire knew that he must gather his strength for this new campaign if they were to succeed, which meant that he had to shed this unattractive and utterly debilitated shell. Scanning the night, smells wafting though the the chilled air to tease the other senses, a pair of glowing vermilion eyes locked on a staggering drunk. The man was strong with the scent of liquor, a smoky cigar odor enveloping leather and cheap cologne. Dracula descended upon the man from the shadows, not bothering to hesitate as he grabbed him from behind, arms vices against the mortal's chest. The man seemed to notice him a little too late; the starved vampire feeding to his hearts content, scarlet blood flowing out of the puncture marks his fangs had made in a river of gore and slop. Standing proudly once more, face stained red from the man's feeble struggle, he already felt healthier...

Taking the few unlucky humans that came his way, a well-built man appearing to be in his thirties passed their lifeless corpses, left carelessly in the open like breadcrumbs in a child's fairytale, thick brown-black waves swinging in the breeze, "Now to find the Necronomicon."

Striding through the eerily empty alleys like a regal prince of the underworld to arrive at the wolf-infested edge of the city, he could see that the infinite sky, all ink and burning blue-white pinpricks, was slowly beginning to dim down to a dark royal purple. Maybe it was a special gift of his, or maybe all vampires had an internal clock built inside their bodies, but he knew that, sooner rather than later, he would need to find shelter from the sun's harsh light. But first, he had more pressing matters to deal with, such as ridding his pesky canine pursuers. He had known of their presence the entire time, an unnumbered pack stalking him ever since the park, but he had felt no need to bother with the creatures before now; they were no where to be seen by even his superior eye, but they could not hide their rancid stench from his acute, vampiric senses. Almost without thought, he drew his whip from his side, its sterling length almost crying in agony as it waited to tasted flesh. Slashing through the electrified air at them from the sidelines, even as he moved from point A to point B, Dracula made sure to see them all end as red splashes of rich, lush blood. While busy with the likes of the lesser lycans, a greater lycanthrope hurdled out to block off the path that would ultimately lead to the Necronomicom. Growling from deep within at the unflinching vampire, it vaulted at him from the side, its massive hairy muzzle, dripping with the crimson remains of its own meal, poised to take a chunk off the naturally superior creature. Testing his newly restored body with vigor, and perhaps a bit of boredom, he rolled back at the last possible second, swinging his weapon in a wide semi-circle so it wound around his foe's unprotected ankle. Yanking the spiked chain as hard as he could, he reeled in the monster as it desperately clawed at the ground, trenches of raw ground rising underneath its pointed nails, but he was the stronger, more dominate one of the two, so the lycan was no match as Dracula pulled out a silver dagger from his belt, the leather-bound handle protecting his own hand from the sting of the silver, embedding it in the beast's heart in fountaining spurts of scarlet.

Straightening his back as he ascended to full height, he thought he heard a sigh of relief soft as a rustling leaf break through the serene night air, and immediately he thought of the figure who had saved him at the park earlier. But the sense that he was being watched was gone almost as soon as it came, so he shrugged it off as his imagination and continued on the path. It was queer that someone should be following him from the shadows, lending a helping hand in a seemingly hopeless situation, especially now of all times. Was it even possible that news of Lucifer had spread so quickly? Was it possible that there were still those who would try to defeat the fallen angel in this day and age? Nay, even if there was someone brave enough, strong enough, or foolish enough, there was no way that they could ever ever have hope of defeating Satan. A voice not unlike Marie's echoed in the back of his mind: _You did. When all hope was lost, you drove the fallen back to the pits of hell! Remember the strength you had when you fought for me? The raw desire to hold your beloved once again gave you the courage and will to do it! Was that not you? The hope that drove you passed the brink of death itself? Was that not what happened? Don't think so little of the humans... It was not THAT long ago that you yourself were once one. _The voice, who or whatever it was, was not wrong.

The bruised sky was getting dangerously lighter by the second now, yet fortunately for the brooding vampire, there was an old church not too far way from his current location. It was thoroughly abandoned years ago and was more than halfway burned down, but the roof still was cover enough if he could just reach it in time. The building was one story above ground, had a gaping hole in the side of the wall the size of a wreaking ball, several smaller patches missing from the gabbled rooftop, a white cross mounted on atop the roof little more than a twig amongst the fiercest infernos of hell, and nothing but shattered windows lined the outside of the building, not even a door. It was washed out, the rotting clapboard stained brown from a number of floods that never completely dried away. A small cemetery enshrined the once fenced-off area, a number of illegal, unknown, and unmarked graves sprinkled all around the faded headstones, every name obliterated by the wear and tear of time. Dracula skirted the outside of the cemetery until he came to an opening in the fence, eying the sky with growing distrust.

"Rest in peace... Such foolish mortal ideals," He scoffed at the tombstone nearest to the gateway, pushing away a time when he himself once believed in such things. But that time was so long ago now, lost in another life.

The cemetery itself loomed opaque and ominous, covered by a sprawling neighborhood of webbed roots, twisting willow, and dried ivy. Putting one detached foot in front of the other, Dracula nonchalantly entered the once hallowed grounds, and almost as if on cue, the ground became alive with husked, crawling bodies known as creeping corpses. Scratching their way to the intruder faster than could be believed, given that they had branch-like limbs from the elbow and waist down, the swarm attempted to force him down. Becoming airborne to avoid their wicked tree-like scratch, he brandished his whip, flourishing it around and around to put the dead down for good. Going deeper down the beaten path, he was assaulted by more of the creeping corpses, one of them slithering its way into an open coffin to become a creeping coffin. Growing root-like legs, the coffin charged its full weight at the vampire, sending him flying back on impact. Using the handle of his whip, he dug it into the barren earth to stop himself. Grabbing one of his last few flasks of holy water, nonlethal to himself as long as he avoided contact with the blessed water, he threw it at the ground under him, sending the creatures back where they came from, their shrill cries of pain sounding like a soothing ballad to the cold-hearted master of the night. The rest was easy for him, his nature as a vicious predator taking a hold of him...

His first real challenge came in the form of an age-old necromancer, feet bound into one point with swaying dusty red-orange robes like all the others he had fought before. It was standing, or to be more precise, floating, between him and sweet sanctuary, the rose-gold dawn quickly pressing down the last of the gray night's sky. It was not interested in speaking to him like the last one had been, it made that abundantly clear by swinging its blackened staff at Dracula, summoning a small crowd of creeping corpses to fight on its behalf. Dismissing them one-by-one, like flies, whip cutting continuously through the summoner's skin, the false death cried out in excruciating agony. Downing the pitiful creature, Dracula pressed his bare foot against the creature's chest, forcing it on its back. Grabbing its staff from its writhing grasp, he rammed it into the necromancer's heart, or the cavity that would have held a heart if it had one at all, killing it instantly.

But all this had taken too long - The orange disk that was the sun was up now, shining it's wrath upon all traces of shadow its glowing rays could reach. Pushing his newly restored body beyond his physical limits, Dracula practically flew into the open wall, making the safety of the shadows at the last possible second. It was not a pretty sight, his skin paper white, scorched black and red as gray ashes drifted off of him into the air, but the burn marks on his skin would fade away by the time night next fell, and he would live to see another adventure. But he had drained himself now by human and vampire standards alike, so he swayed tipsily on his feet, collapsing from the exhaustion that plagued his wary body and the searing pain that boiled under his skin and bubbled at his ashy flesh.

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><p>Ok, here's chapter two... A little short, but... Well, I hope I did alright! It will be quite some time before the next chapter, probably, but I will continue this story, so please just try to bare with me? Action isn't my forte, so maybe I could get some advice on how to improve on that... Or if that's too much to ask, maybe just a little "Oh, this story sucks, stop writing!" or "Keep up the good work!" would be nice. But either way, I'll continue writing, because that's my passion in life! I really love Castlevania and Gabriel!<p> 


	3. Chapter One: Part Three

Dracul opened his undead eyes from their unplanned slumber to find himself sealed inside of an open oak coffin. The coffin was clearly made for someone much smaller than himself, so between the wood pinning his arms to his side and the rotting body underneath his back, it took him a minute to free himself. Once freed and standing at the barred church window, undiluted moonlight pouring over him akin to a warm summer shower over a wilting bud, he realized that something was not right: For one thing, he had swooned just inside the ancient building, unable to make it far enough to find a suitable hiding place, and for another, there was the filling salty aftertaste of fresh blood in his mouth.

Closing his eyes as he focused on the savory flavor on his tongue, the visage of a woman in naught but her flesh swam before his eyes. His first thought was of Marie, his first and only love throughout the centuries of his life, but something inside of the back of his mind knew that it wasn't her. This woman was featureless, void of a discernible shape, her silhouette made of pure, edgeless light, but nevertheless, he could still make out certain traits that she had, such as dark hair and green eyes the color of an untamed forest. Whoever the woman was, there was something familiar about her that he just couldn't quite shake.

Thoroughly troubled by the manner in which he woke up, Dracul knew that there was no time to waste, so anticipating the opportunity to unravel this mystery later, he benched his concerns and headed out. With any luck, the mystery might unravel itself with time. Taking an old foot path from the church that lead to a barren marshland, he put his troubles behind him.

_Standing outside in the dark, a little girl waited bravely for her father to return home. Her father had promised her that he would be back. He promised her._

Never once wishing more for a brighter setting since descending into darkness, Dracula dredged through the brackish brown-grey marshes, his sweeping sable skirts soaked through with seeping water that felt vaguely as if it were weighing him down, pulling his core deep into the first circle of hell. Nothing less than a slight annoyance on the road to salvation. Or destruction. Either way this journey ended, the destination would no doubt led through perilous trials and daunting tribulations, but as long as he fought for the good fight, the vampire knew that his millenia of living would find meaning. Perhaps he was deluding himself with a fool's hope, a lingering trait from his days as a mortal, but something inside of him would not quite let his damned soul - were it still even in him - give in entirely to the depths. Something distant, secret, and hidden within still resided inside, spurring him onwards. Maybe he misread the thing as hope when truly all it was was the thought of finally moving on and resting in peace, or simply just the thought of death after so long, but the thought of freedom from this curse was his only ray of light.

Forced from his thoughts by the piercing shriek of a band of goblins, by far uglier than he had remembered them to be, Dracul yanked his whip from its holster and snapped the tip across the face of a particularly hideous goblin. Dropping its grenade at its own feet as it howled in writhing agony, it exploded in a fan of redness, the lit bomb detonating prematurely. Avenging its comrade, a runty little thing sprang forward, ready to launch a barrage of explosives at the vampire. Having no patience for the monster, Dracul caught the bomb in midair, barehanded, and threw it back at the camp, causing the deaths of more than one goblin. Hissing and cursing at the intruder, the lumpy swamp-dwellers attacked until the last man was put down like a rabid dog.

Quick as the fights were, he felt himself gradually becoming stronger and thus more prepared for later encounters. It wasn't only a physical feeling, no, not by a long shot, but it was real - more real than the forewarning of Lucifer's imminent return had been. Coursing through him like molten lava through the earth, he could sense his senses growing more acute to the area around him. Ok, so these meager bursts of strength would do no good in the final battle, but they would certainly enable him to make it through the fights with the lesser bosses. No longer was the marsh confounding him, but was now rather welcoming him into it. The land itself seemed to agree with his purpose, as he soon came to the other side of the landscape. But wasn't only the land that gave in to him - now he could hear every last inhabitant of the area, and he knew that he was not the only intruder.

He was being followed by the mystery hunter, even now. Yet he had to wonder: if the hunter was still pursuing him, was there the chance that the hunter was involved with helping him back at the church? But if so, then why was the shadow keeping his distance? If the intention of the other man was to see him dead, they why did he continue to follow him? Whatever the man's story was, the vampire was positive that sooner or later, the hunt would come to an end and the answers would be revealed in due time.

Cut short of his thoughts before he could ponder further, Dracul felt a sudden shift in the presence of his second shadow. Normally, it emitted nothing more than a faint glimmer of life, just enough to let the vampire know that he wasn't alone, but this time, something was different about it. The heart beat was increasing rapidly in an unhealthy race against itself, the pulse speeding up in raw panic. Something must have caught him off guard, though what it was, Dracula could not tell.

Feeling that a debt was owed, the former human and holy knight changed his path, curving sharply over to to the left until he reached a solid wall of moss. At least, that's what the untrained eye would have seen, but the vampire was not fooled by the natural disguise, nor had he been in life, and so he knew that the so-called wall was really the back of a monstrous troll. Alerting the creature to his presence, the vampire sprung on top of the monster, causing it to drop the hooded figure in its grasp. Too busy wrestling with the beast, Dracul missed the hunter scurry out of the fray and into the marshes. Making quick work of the troll by pulling its head off from the jaws up, effectively covering himself in gore, he too left the marsh.

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><p>Oh, I am still alive and working on this! Whadda know? Well, my devoted readers, and those of you who are merely curious, I have not forgotten this story just yet. Seriously though, I have been horribly sidetracked by writers block and obsession for other properties. Hopefully you'll continue to be patient as I forge onward with this!<p>

Reviews are always welcome!


	4. Chapter One: Part Four

Exiting the swampy marsh, the darkness of weeping willows and mossy canopies cloaking him as he traversed the murky landscape during the daylight hours, Dracul found himself outside of a canyon, almost as white as a bone and more dried than a sunbathing necromancer, snarling lycans and howling wargs crawling around the moon-bleached rock freely. Pierced by jutting slabs of conically weather-worn stone, the star-strewn sky grew blurry as the toxins of the city blew south, igniting in an almost invisible war between translucent wisps of cloud. Standing alone between a rise in the land and sticking out like a sore thumb was an old wood cabin, the high, cobweb-encrusted windows curtained off in heavy sheets of black, a hole in the fabric showing a hefty block of grainy wood barring the window.

Famished as he was from his trek through the waters of hell, Dracul headed directly for the hut in the hopes of finding food, unconcerned by the fact that that meant meeting the wolves head-on. Observing the ravenous pack of beasts as he walked, their mangy selves sniffing about the place gave him the idea that the cabin was occupied by fresh, living human beings. He wasn't wrong about that - the cabin was home to a small family group that had shunned their respective societies to live in the tranquility of nature. Wind blowing at his face, the wolves oblivious to his presence, he stalked to the edge of their camp, taking out the sentries first, working his way stealthily to the heart of their territory. Gabriel would have fearlessly barreled through the area, while Dracul would have pinpointed every last enemy, mercilessly destroying it before continuing on for his objective, but a starving Dracul played it safely, hunting from the shadows as the perfect killing machine that he currently was...

_Bone-weary and near the point of collapse, a battered hand pounded frantically on the front door of the cabin, twilight encroaching rapidly at the figure's back. Sweaty from running a ridiculously far distance in an incredibly short amount of time, blood ran down the woman's temple, the skin raked open and oozing slowly, flakes of dried blood crusting at the edges of the lacerations. Throwing frightened looks over her shoulder, the woman was about to scamper off to find another way into the hut, praying that she wouldn't have to, when the door flew open and a pair of strong hands dragged her inside the ramshackle building. If it weren't for the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she would have collapsed on the floor the minute that the door had been secured, the snapping jaws at her back missing her heel by mere millimeters._

_"Take this," The man that had pulled her inside threw her a small pistol, presumably filled with silver bullets. His face was weathered from years of working the land, neck burnt from the harsh winds that blew, arms corded like an athlete in his prime, but his grizzled grey mop and wrinkled grey eyes showed the tattletale signs of age._

_A woman of similar features, younger and rounder than the man by at least half, peered out of the window, counting the number of lycans under her breath. A slender young woman, not much older than their unexpected guest, cocked a shotgun, eyes darting back and forth from the door to the stranger, and vice versa. There was something weasel-like about her, besides how jumpy she was, and her skin was dark, almost like burnt maple syrup._

_Howling at the cabin, backing off when the door had remained closed, the wolves retreated, circling the place as more and more came to join the original pack. Foreseeing that they were safe for the moment, the man stepped away from the door and looked at the stranger, "It's not every day that we see any guests. Nor is it often that they draw in a crowd. Who are you, little one?" His voice gave away a faint accent, German, with the slightest hint of a seasoned New Yorker. _

Dispatching the last of the canine prowlers, Dracul reached out to open the front door of the hut, only for the door to fall from its hinges at the brush of his fingertips. Blood decorated the room in all conceivable locations, fresh and gleaming in the moonlight, the body of a woman appearing to be the source of the flooding, but not of the carnage. Whatever happened here, it was unexpected and sudden, and apparently lethal. Well, waste not, want not. Bending over the prone body, the blood still warm enough to provide a sufficient meal, he grabbed the woman's neck, biting into the flesh. It was bitter, tasting strongly of earth, and far from human, but it was better than nothing, so he swallowed his pride as he drank, the liquid spilling down his chin as he drank greedily, draining the body to the last drop.

Restored for the most part, he stood up straight at full height, prepared to be on his way, but at that exact moment, a cry broke the eerie silence. The cry was close by, still inside the cabin, but it was faint, almost dead-sounding. Reaching out with his senses, Dracul felt that there were two living beings remaining in the house, their life-force radiating from the floor. Casting a quick glance around the room again, the signs of struggle were evident, and quite telling. Someone of a large size had been thrown into a table, a bookshelf cleaved in two, volumes of well-cared for leather-bounds spilling forth like a delta into the ocean, and the carpet had been ripped open, the blood welling up along the outline of a trapdoor. Kicking the door in on itself so that it split in twain, he descended into the basement, almost complete limestone with a sandy floor covered with various bones, both human and animal alike. The bones were rotting, covered with maggots, and they smelled as if they had been there for centuries...

_Smiling radiantly down at him from a high, ivy-coated balcony was a woman as beautiful as the starry sky above, and what he didn't know about her was that she was just as terrible. Willow and grace, she reached out a slender arm to him of a pale, almost white gold, giving him her hand though the insurmountable distance that separated them, nodding down at the open front door, telling him to go inside. In a swirl of velvet and sage, she was gone from sight, having been swept inside by the clamor of the other party-goers after shooting the man a last forlorn glimpse. Following her siren call, the man followed her lead, working his way through the crowd so that he could meet her face-to-face._

_"Moretti? Lucian Moretti!" A voice like a foghorn boomed behind him, startling the man half-way from his waking daydream, the colors twirling passed brighter than they had been before, an arm like a ham wrapping around his shoulder, forcibly turning him around to face a portly gentleman in a grey tweed suit with a pinstriped tie._

_Anxious to find the woman from the balcony to the point where he felt as if he would tumble into unending insanity, he had been about to respectfully detach himself from the man, but stopped short as he saw that the woman was standing by his side. He hoped that she wasn't his wife, and though that normally would have sopped him, this woman made him lose all reason and feel as if he would do anything in his power to make her his. Fixing his attention to her, solely on her, Lucian gave his hand to the man to shake, "Sorry, Clint, I must have missed you in all the hullabaloo."_

_The man named Clint shook his peppered head, beefy neck almost obscuring the gesture, "Think nothing of it, Lucian! Some shindig tough. That ol' fox sure knows how to throw a party, huh? I hear that he even hired some folk from the Russian Ballet and some of them dancer-types from that Circus show in Las Vegas. Cirque De Soleil, or some such name. Silly hob-tosh, I say. A simple masquerade would have been more than enough!"_

_Looking past an elegant tangle of natural sable curl at Clint from the corner of her onyx eyes, her attention strictly on Lucian, she waved her similarly-colored gloved hand impatiently at the older man, "I'm sure that this week's little chicken is who we can really thank for this magnificent party. Is chicken the right word, or was it the baby? I sincerely doubt that a man well passed his second century could put together something this spectacular." She had a strange accent that sounded half French, half Spanish._

_"Second century!" Clint roared with laughter, belly in danger of spilling from its tweed prison, "You slay me, Miss French, you really slay me! Oh, Lucian, have you met Miss French here? She's a gem, this one. How she isn't already taken, I'll never understand. But in all seriousness, Rosaria here is actually going to be the newest junior assistant at my firm. Her resume came in almost the second ol' MacNalley passed, God rest his soul. Isn't that right, Rosie?"_

_She blushed, the dusting of silver on her face shimmering in the light like glitter made of the purest shards of glass, as if embarrassed by his praise, "Please, Clint, I asked you not to call me that. Rosaria is just fine. As for my love life," She flashed a dazzling white smile at Lucian, "I just haven't found the right guy yet. After all, Succubi mate for life, so its only natural that I take my time finding that special person, wouldn't you agree, Lucian, is it?" She knew full well what his name was, among other things._

_It had been as if she had been made just for him..._

* * *

><p>Rosaria is either very open about the supernatural world, or else she has one out-there sense of humor. But that remains to be seen, doesn't it? Add in some creepy werewolves, a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and a few flashbacks that may or may not be connected<em>,<em> and you have a new chapter that didn't take a year to write! Reviews are always welcome, of course. But I wonder, do I really need to specify that for every chapter? Well, regardless, until next time!


	5. Chapter One: Part Five

The tapering stairs were never-ending, the rough stone worn down by generations of frequent usage, winding deeper and deeper down into the earth's barren bosom, the temperature dropping almost rapidly enough to freeze the living within seconds. The stench of death was also becoming heavier in the air, the ever increasing bones of the deceased tumbling from the softest step, entire bones and fragments alike crunching under each footfall, smell almost heavy enough to make even Dracul choke in the back of his throat as he sought out the source of the scream. Once it would have been foolish heroics that led him into this dreary place, no source of lighting to be found, but now it was the unquenchable thirst that drove him to this hell, searching for what he fancied would be a more satisfying morsel than an accursed descendant of the moon, a Child of Cornell...

_Holding his head, fresh blood oozing from where his left eye had been gorged out by the woman's fingernails, spilling generous rubies between the crevasses of his fingers, the man who had taken the woman into the cabin glared at his assailant as his mate tended to her own wounds. Ripping out shards of silver from her stomach, the result of a hand-made time bomb, she grunted in pain as she planned on the best methods of torture, promising to make that bitch pay for not only marring herself and her beloved Alaric, but for killing Amaris as well. Theirs had been a small coven, but a well picked one, Emma finding Alaric years ago on her first full moon, Amaris coming into the picture decades after their first coven had failed, turned inwards and annihilated. It took all they had not to rip the woman into shreds in their grief..._

_The woman, her arms strapped behind her back by a simple brown leather belt, made from the hide of their dead, her head hanging slack to the side, was suspended in the air by a massive rusted chain - the kind used for ship anchors - looping around her waist and elbows, the metallic flakes sawing gradually into her. She had been rendered unconscious by a surprise blow to the back of the head, her thick braid coming undone so that waves of pitch ebony fell in curtains around her face, right eye bruised an ugly purple and swelling shut. A second and third belt had been applied to her ankles and thighs, preventing her from kicking out when she finally awoke.  
><em>

Reaching level ground at long last, the rotting at its absolute worst, working from the remains of the bodies to blend into the natural walls of the cave, breeding some kind of new bacteria, all that stood between the vampire and his meal was an old wooden door and two half-beasts. Half-beats were sickening creatures, offensive to all supernatural creeds, normally the blending of demonic species with one another, but in this case it was the interbreeding of a Child of Cornell and a human. Disgusting. But they would be easy enough to defeat, especially now that they had been wounded, the scent of their bitter blood radiating through the door, lingering in the air. That human had put up a surprisingly good fight against them...

Could it be...?

Dismissing the thoughts of the hunter that had been following him since the beginning of his journey, the shadow king kicked the door in, strong enough now to disregard the need for discretion. Moldy as the rest of the lair, the door fell to splinters at his feet with one single strike, the half-beasts twisting their mangled faces to growl at the intruder. Snarling, their mouths elongating into snouts dripping with saliva, the woman lunged first, her body expanding and morphing midair, razor sharp claws swiping at the intruder, raking across his exposed torso. Alaric snapped at his enemy's heels, getting kicked in the muzzle as the vampire spun away from Emma. Whimpering, his nose already sensitive from the encounter with the woman, slashes from a silver wire ribboning his strong jaw, the joint was now dislocated from the surprise attack. Emma fared far worse, the demon whip flailing her back, a silver knife piercing her chest as she landed with a muted thud...

Fur shedding, bones resetting into those of a human skeletal structure, she fell to the floor, dead. Further infuriated by this tragic loss, Alaric threw himself at the monster that had slain his wife, completely forgetting about the female creature behind him. A fatal mistake, as she had regained consciousness during the master of the night's arrival, mind clearing up for the widowing of her captor, a shortened crocheting needle in her mouth whizzing through the air to puncture the canine, flying through his chest, straight into the heart and back out the other side. The wolf crumpled before reaching his target, the light in his grey eye fading as he too retook his human form.

Glancing up boredly at the woman, the shock of her battered state dulled by the rich pounding of blood in her body, he cut her down so he could feed easier, her lithe frame bouncing against the hard ground as she landed awkwardly on her ankle. In response, she fixed him with a stoney stare, mouth setting into a hard line. Curious that she should be unafraid of him, her heart-rate normal through the scuffle, presumably so since before the chains had been added, even as he bent over her. Crouching on one knee, inches from lowering his fangs into her throat, her struggling little more than a nuance, he paused at the sound of a familiar voice in his ear. _Gabriel, wait. Look at this girl, see her face in the light. _Taking the young woman by the chin, he forced her head up so he could look at her. _Eyes like the forest she had_. It was the woman from his dream!

Standing up, ripping the chains from her as if they were made of tissue paper, the metal coiling over her lap, he threw down another knife, the blade severing the thick hide pining her hands, cutting into her wrists, drawing blood, "Who are you?"

Rubbing the blood from her wrists, the feeling gradually coming back to her hands, she took the blade from where it stood in the ground and worked it through the leather binding her legs, "My father taught me that it's common curtsey to introduce yourself before asking someone else for their name. That was the only thing he had been able to teach me, no thanks to you, Vampire!"

It was rather amusing, the way that she had spit out the last word, so filled with acid and hatred, "Girl, you do not know to whom you speak, of how many families I have ripped apart with my blood lust!"

"Oh, I know who you are, Dracul." She stood, wobbling slightly though no less formidable, "You are the vampire that scours the land, the immortal that plagues our lives, the lord that crowns himself over our heads, reaping what we sow. You, you inhuman beast spat from the bowels of hell, are the fiend that I must aid in finding the Necronomican to rid the land of a greater evil. Though I am honor-bound by my association to assist you in your journey, know that the end of our quest is already written in your blood - I am Arianna Moretti, the daughter of Lucian Moretti, the man you slew in cold blood, and I will avenge my father's death. You ask me who I am? I am the one that is going to kill you once and for all!"

"Many men have made the same claim, and yet here I stand," He spoke calmly, "So what makes you so certain that you can succeed where they failed?"

Limping slightly as her ankle adjusted to her weight again, she yanked her bag from the table, the contents yet to be rifled through by her secondary targets, and pulling out the cloak of the hunter, she threw it on over her blouse, "They didn't learn enough of their prey. I don't know what strategies they employed, but I would bet that they just barreled in after you, and that is never the best answer against a higher-level adversary. But until we reach the Book of the Dead, you have no need to count me as your enemy. Nor as your friend."

"You speak as if I intend to let you live, little Aria." He said that, and yet he had no intentions to do away with her, at least for now; Arianna's skills enough to merit the audience she desired, and then there was also the mystery of why she had come to him in his dreams, and why Maria was visiting more frequently than before, speaking on behalf of this human.

"Don't call me that. Only my father can call me that!" She began to shake furiously, her cool evaporating, "If you don't stop calling me that, I swear, I will abandon my vows and kill you were you stand!"

Laughing, he doubted that she would put up more fight than a fly against his awesome strength, "That would be quite entertaining to watch the likes of you try to stand up against me, little Aria."

Throwing off her cloak once more, Arianna took a simple Kalaripayattu stance, first one foot forward and one foot to the side, heels touching, the forward facing foot stepping forth, her arms crossed at the wrists under her chin, "Come at me then."

Whip crackling, tip aimed at her face, her arm shot out, wrapping around the whip, underside of her arm exposed. Grasping the cruel snake, Arianna yanked him forward with surprising strength, the shock more than the force sending him forward. So, she was a student of the Indian martial art Kerala. Now knowing this, Dracul caught himself, only his knee bending slightly from her counterattack, and he feinted, acting as if he had dropped his weapon, going for a blow in the ribs. Falling for his plan, he tightened his hold on the weapon, tearing at her skin with the serrated thong, ripping a thin slit in her flesh from her hand to her elbow.

Looking at her arm, incensed, Arianna struck back, her hands lashing through the air, Dracul dodging her every move as if he saw her making them ahead of time. Her waning focus was making this little exercise quite tiresome, and the feral way in which was moved was becoming wilder and wilder. Flicking his tongue at her, the bloodsucker encircled her, lassoing her to her knees, ending this pointless scuffle before she got seriously hurt.

A dowsed feline, she hissed up at him, "Let me go, you foul, slimy, self-righteous, abhorrent scum! I will not have an abominable, despicable, sullied creature such as you defeat me!It's disgraceful, and you're detestable, you dishonorable, repulsive thing! You hateful, repellent beast! Just being in your presence is revolting, you loathsome, decrepit old bat! I feel so shamed, losing against a heinous monster! Absolutely horrid, rank, and vile!" Twisting around in her prison, she sobbed weakly, "I curse my order for making me work with a wicked, unclean, vicious, and unscrupulous, putrid, ruttish, vermin!"

"Ruttish?" Dracul had listened to her rants, amused as she hit the end.

She did a double take, retracting her previous statement, "Brutish. As if I could look upon a devil and see anything but evil! Preposterous!"

So long as she didn't completely slow him down, little Aria would be an interesting addition, so, freeing her with a single fluid flick of the wrist, he spoke, "I shall put this meeting behind us and allow you to aid me until such a time when you can no longer fulfill your purpose. But first you must tell me something, little Aria..." He smirked as she flinched in annoyance, "Who sent you here after me? What order do you work for? And lastly, why have you, you who hold so fierce a grudge upon me, come to help me?"

Dusting herself off as she stood up, Arianna picked up her tattered cloak and stuffed it back in her bag, "That's more than one something. But since you spared me," She sneered, "Oh kind one, I shall tell you what you want to know... Once you tell me why you didn't just drain me dry back there."

He fixed his eyes upon her, leaning his head back, "I owe you nothing."

She shrugged, "Fair enough. But it's a long journey, and I'm sure that our reasons will become clear to each other soon enough. " Walking over to the wall behind the hook she had previously been hanging from, she ran her fingertips over the jagged stone, grinning when the wall slid back with an earsplitting grinding noise, "But for now I will tell you that I work for an organization with many purposes and names; the sect of which belong is called 'The Harmony of Rapacious Necrotomy'. Officially. But we within the loop call it 'thorn' for a reason." Slipping her glove up over her hand, Arianna showed him an intricate tattoo of a double lined neon blue cross, surrounded by a thorned rose, "Count yourself lucky that you get to see that symbol and live past the night."

Sliding the tough material back in place, the disciple of the goddess Artemis ambled breezily into the secret underground vault, looking over her shoulder at her reluctant partner. Following her lead this once, he entered the vault, the walls lined with pelts, cruel metal instruments that gleamed sinisterly in the dim artificial ceiling lights - Arianna's eyes taking a moment to adjust - and various items kept in glass containers. Not just a laboratory for questionable work, but a treasure trove of paranormal artifacts. Going deeper into this workshop of untold gems, the door fell back in place, sealing them inside...

* * *

><p>Yes, I so just made up a new term for a werewolf (so far as I know), called a Child of Cornell. And is a half-beast a thing already? I honestly don't know, thank you Konami for making a majority of the Castlevania games exclusively for the Nintendo! To all the die-hard Nintendo fans out there, I'm not dissing the system, I'm just pissed that Konami opted for only the one system. And most importantly, I would like to thank SuperiorDimwit for not only the continued interest and putting up with my insufferable pauses, but for asking me for more. If it wasn't for you, this chapter might not have happened anytime too soon, so really, thank you!<p> 


	6. Chapter One: Part Six

Trapped in the vault, the door crashing down before either of them, meaning even Gabriel with his superior speed, could react and even attempt escape, the vampire and his human partner looked at each other, baseless blame in their eyes. If only Little Aria had known what she was doing - as if she could have known about this trap - they wouldn't be locked in this room together. Much as she reviled his kind, she knew that Dracul should have possessed the sight to have seen this coming, or the dexterity at least to prevent this predicament!

"Well, isn't this every girl's dream. Trapped in a bloody hell hole with the sleaze that killed her father... I guess dreams really do come true!" Arianna snapped, still sore over her loss, "But something tells me that you don't mind much, do you bloodsucker? I bet it would feel rather homey, if not a bit too spacious."

He ignored her griping, taking a closer look at the items lining the walls at intervals. A cursed sword forged from a dying star, fangs and claws stolen from mythical beasts, rainbow scales and poisoned talons, and a bright red gem the size of a baby's fist occupied the first several cases. Nothing to interest him, or even of much use on this quest, just pointless trinkets and lineless heirlooms. _Heirs._ _Why, Marie, why did you lie...? Was it that you knew I would be corrupted? Or did you fear me from the start? Was our love a sham? Could it be that you were playing a part? Did you know that you would break my heart? What little heart is left to me.. Did you ever love me at all? _

Scanning the other side of the room and therefore too preoccupied to notice the pendulous cloud opposite her, coming across more of the same junk, Arianna finally acting her age, she stopped as they met up at the end of the room, the uncased object of their search standing between them, pulling his engrossed mind back to the present. Glowing with a faint purple light, closed and firmly locked, cover made of shriveled, stitched together human flesh and pages inked in blood, was the Necronomicon.

Reaching out to touch it, fearless of the sheen that emanated from the leather-bound, Dracul grabbed her wrist, "Wait."

Removing the wingless harpy's cloak from her shoulder bag, ripping it from where it was unceremoniously stuffed at the top, spinning it with both flare and skill - probably talent that was there before he had turned - he threw it into the murky violet barrier that stood between them and the key forward. Sizzling, smelling instantly of burning hair and overcooked vegetables, the tattered fabric burst into flames, incinerating mid-air, the ashes floating down like dirty snow on a cold winter's morning. Watching the cloak her father had made for himself when he was starting out as a hunter disintegrate, Arianna turned to her companion, mouth agape. Horrified into silence, she could only watch uselessly as the last thing remaining of her father was destroyed.

Aware by the way she was acting that it was something important to her, Dracul gazed at her remorselessly, "Was that important to you, Little Aria?"

"..." She was too shocked to say anything, to even feel a flicker of anger at the nickname.

"So there is a way to silence your mewling."

Swearing to herself that once she recovered from this latest insult, she would have words with him! It was one thing to abuse her name and call her just the way her father had, but it was another matter entirely to destroy the last piece of her old man that she possessed. If a demon such as him could ever have had a family, or anyone special, and he had some form of a keepsake, doubtful after all these centuries, she never would have touched it! But then, manners were one of the many, many things that separated them, weren't they?

Not that she wanted to be brought down to his level.

Leaving her to her devices, frivolous as they might be, Dracul looked around the bleached area, seeing a technologically camouflaged nook between two shelves lined with sick and psychopathic findings that she, being considerably smaller than he was, would easily fit in. Flicking his gaze back and forth between the crevice and her frame, flaring hips belted twice with gear such as climbing rope, her backside curved just enough to be problematic in this situation, wondered if she could make it on second thought. Noticing his eyes on her, Arianna shook her head at him, giving the famed cold shoulder. It would be a pinch, but she just might make it through to the other side of the unlit tunnel...

"You don't have a problem with small spaces, do you?" He pointed a frozen, bony finger at his discovery, "If so I could always use a snack."

Glaring at the graying face of stone, ravenous hunger for a real meal beginning to gnaw back to the surface of his pearly pallor, showing him for what he really was, the huntress probed the shortened cave with her arm stretched out. Pulling her hand back with a grimace, the kind usually saved for less than savory characters, her fingers came away caked in moss, like wiping a fish tank that hasn't been cleaned in years. The slimy feeling would have sent shivers up anyone else's back, but Arianna had dealt with worse in the past, so this was nothing...

Plunging into the unyielding darkness, head bent low so she didn't scalp herself on the razor-sharp edges of the natural ceiling, hand gliding over the moss as it gave way to rock, she let out thunderous shriek, sounding very much like the girl that she was.

Super-sight be dammed, he couldn't see her clearly from where he stood, not that he particularly cared to, but at this juncture, she seemed to be the only thing that could get them from point 'A' to point 'B', "What is it?"

Stuttering, teething chattering in her head, the girl sounded near hysteria, "S...S...Sp...Sp...Sp...SPIDER!"

The eye-roll that followed could be heard by the deaf two continents over, "You would fight creatures a girl your age could only dream of, and yet you're afraid of a spider? Just an ordinary house spider?"

"It's hairy... And nasty... And freaking huge! Creeps my business out! Eight-legged bastards aren't right..." She cried, flailing the appendage touched by the arachnid and sprinting through the rest of the enclosure, knocking down at least two more tarantulas, carelessly scraping herself raw in her haste, "Phew! I made it... Somehow..."

Indeed, her voice was clear if not slightly shaken, and her breathing was returning to normal, but the sweet, sweet nectar in her veins was like music to his ears as it gushed forth, globing just under the skin - he could imagine it, see it almost, the scarlet pooling beneath a thin layer of light caramel silk, seeping sensually from were the epidermis was torn away. Intoxicating as the deadliest drug, beckoning with its fragrant tendrils, the forbidding sense of pent-up pleasure itching to unleash itself in the taking of her blood, he could feel the pull, the not completely unpleasant tingling in his mouth. Just a bite, one small drop even, and he would be done with his almost blinding half-euphoria, seeing that miserable mortal in a light less becoming and more fitting to her ilk.

"I think I found something," Her voice cut through his reverie like a saw through bone, ripping Dracul from his blending of colors and enriching visuals - mostly of her corpse - and bringing him crashing back, a numbness setting in as he held back his insatiable thirst, "A switch. I'm going to hit it... Now."

Blending into the walls, cut into a square-shaped tablet depicting the origin of the werewolves, Arianna pushed the button with some difficulty; another passage way, this time lit by torches, opening up, dust and debris falling away from the wall as it melted away. Since the degenerate swine would be of no help, it was up to her to explore what came her way by herself, not that that was a problem, as she was more than used to working alone. Besides, why would she need the help of the cretin anyways? She was capable!

Delving deeper down the rabbit hole, the maiden that was not Alice let out yet another ear-splitting scream, this time shriller and more urgent than the last. Lording in her supposed superiority over the monster she had taken up for a partner, Arianna had lowered her guard, a far worse creature than the one waiting for her stalking silently behind her, taking her unawares. Pinning her to the ground, mouth gnashing, clicking, clacking, and salivating, the giant spider bit at her, pincers locked in combat against her bare hands. Standing between her and a blue, dimly glowing object on a pedestal made of gnarled bone, was her worst fear, and a colossal one at that. No, she couldn't... Hands slipping, muscles failing... Closing her eyes tight, looking away, she gave it one last heave, kicking up at its underside, the beast far lighter than it seemed, soaring away from her as if pulled...

"I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Came the court voice she despised more than any other sound, smug from having saved her skin yet again.

"I could have beaten it if it weren't one of those things..." She shivered, ignoring the withering body in the corner, looking at him suspiciously, "Hang on, how in the world are you in here when I left you back there? You... You didn't follow me when you heard me scream, did you?" He looked away, refusing to admit anything, "So you did. You may be a spawn of hell, but you are a chivalrous spawn, aren't you? I guess I owe you two apologies, but seeing as you could have gone in the entire time but opted to use me as your meat shield, you don't get either of them, you-"

Slapping his hand to her mouth to silence the monologues that never stopped, nodding towards a pulsating ball of silken web at the far side of the room, "Unless you want to face the whole family, I suggest that you stop shouting."

Lust for a river of crimson and a sea of sable, shimmering maroon in the light, evaporating to nothingness with her second panicked scream, Dracul had drawn inwards, summoning up the shocking amount of strength it took to become like the mist on a hunted moor, ghosting through the cave, solidifying once he saw her with her back to the ground, fighting a losing battle against the spider. Even as a mortal man, he had been able to fend the foul beasts off, keeping them at bay, sending them off when they descended. But he should give her some credit; Little Aria was petrified of regular crawlers, so he could only imagine how terrified she was facing their supernatural counterparts, and she had appeared to do so unarmed, caught by surprise. Not completely useless, but he might as well have just drained her when they first met for all the good that she's done since.

_Gabriel!_ He could hear Marie's voice scolding him, _How could you be so cruel? That girl is trying her hardest, I'm sure, and if it weren't for her, you wouldn't know where the Necronomicon was... Besides, I see something special about her... I think, maybe, she could..._ And she was gone as soon as she had came, her voice dying away before she could voice what she thought of Little Aria. What was Marie going to tell him? Why had she continued to defend this meek human? Was it there something about this girl that he didn't know? Yet another thing Marie had seen but hid from him? Or... Was it possible that...? No, it couldn't be...

* * *

><p>Thanks again, for stiffing me once more with a game I don't have the system for... But since I've gathered a small portion of events, I suppose that I could try to tie it in with this. Confused? I'm referring to the new Castlevania game "Mirror of Fate". Hurry it up and come out, dammit! Or not, because then that means that they will retire Gabriel's tale...<p>

And saying that, I jinxed it... Stupid games, getting pushed back to next year... At least Resident Evil 6 moved forward... I guess that makes up for it... Dammit...

Sorry for that display.

Anyways, I actually ended up splitting the chapter into two parts, so just hold tight, and the second one will be up within the next couple of hours, alright? I would post them both right now, but I have a special treat with the second half, and since I'm at school right as I type this (yeah, don't do that!), I can only post the first half. Plus I don't want to have people accidentally miss one of the chapters...


	7. Chapter One: Part Seven

"Mmmhhh," Arianna irritably yanked his hand from her mouth, hissing in a low voice, "The altar over there... I can't reach it on foot, not alone."

Savoring the moment, he knew that it must have killed her, having to ask him for his help! Though, she wasn't wrong, as neither of them were currently in a state to make it over the void that surrounded their secondary objective; Dracul drained from intangibility and Arianna simply unable to reach that kind of distance by herself, at least how she was right now. They had no choice but to lean on each other, so following her to the edge of the precipice, the breather stifling thoughts of pushing him over the cliff, he jumped in the air with his whip out, grappling a weak spot in the ceiling, obviously that was strong enough still to support their combined weight, and snatching her by the arm, just over the elbow, he dragged her along for the ride. Swinging like a pendulum, he tossed her to the other side when they were close enough to reach solid ground, Arianna rolling to a stop when she descended, bruising her side against the decagonal side of a none-too-smooth rock wall as he landed gently, gracefully even.

"There it is," He stepped closer to the bone pedastal, seeing that the source of the glowing was an amulet of light, not unlike his own, "A trinket."

Holding her side as she joined him at the podium, she muttered under her breath, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Already bestowed with immense power, she could read by the way he held back that he had no interest in taking the silver medallion, so she continued alone to the plinth, scooping the blue-gemed ornament into her hand. Resting in her palm, it warmed up, a current washing through her, stirring her blood, awaking the ability to use light magic. Just what they needed, as a purple glow must mean that both types were needed at once!

Going back the way they had come, this time touching the floor a little less roughly, about half-way back to the cavernous tunnel, they paused as they heard something ripping. Looking back at the previously undisturbed egg sack, little miss arachnophobia blanched as thousands upon thousands of baby - and rapidly growing - spiders poured forth, spilling from the gash in the web, tumbling on top of one another from the deflating womb. Assuming that she would be rendered useless, Gabriel stepped forward to dispatch this minor inconvenience, his weapon hoisted high in the air, just waiting to be unleashed.

"No, allow me. I'm afraid I haven't really been myself since you... Since our match. And, now's the best time to test my new abilities..." Reaching down into her backpack without looking, she extracted a pair of silver tessen.

The tessen, or Japanese war fan, was a bladed device, and in Arianna's case was crafted of pure silver and rumored to be blessed by the highest religious figure in Thorn. As a dancer-type fighter, it was only fitting that her primary weapon would be a hand fan, a dainty, ornate snow-white tassel hanging from each handle. Arms flowing from one stance to the next, her footwork flawless and firm, the twin blades flashed through the air, lines of azure light bleeding through the air, both slaying the miserable little newborns and slowly regenerating her stamina.

Room cleared, Arianna looked between her hands and the bodies littered at their feet, "I... I did it...? I killed them all? Yes! In your face, you little - Eeeeee!" One of their legs began to twitch as they dusted away, sending her jumping back into the stoic form of Dracul.

His face said it all as he shoved her off, the boquet that was her blood pouding maddeningly in his ears as it rushed into her face, the bright red burning in her cheeks reminding him of his thirst...

"We should hurry." He spun on his heel and marched back towards the lab, using every last ounce of his restraint to keep from leaving her a forgotten husk.

Catching him by his wrist, Arianna shook her head, cheeks still a bright pink, her jade eyes staring off to the side, her gaze carefully averted, "Wait... You're not looking so good." She quickly amended, "Well, worse than usual."

"I'm fine." He asserted, even though he knew that his restraint was ebbing away, and soon enough, he would turn on her unless he fed soon.

"No," She refused to budge, "You're not. You need to feed."

"Leave it alone." He yanked his hand away, breaking her rather tight grasp.

Sighing, she took one of the crocheting needles from her side pack and stabbed it down into her left arm, down into the flesh, just passed an artery, watching the blood welling up around the needle, splurting out as she ripped out the new feeding intrument, screwing up her face as she bit back the cry of pain that desperately wanted to escape, "Drink. Since you're no good to me without your powers, I might as well as let you take a little. So drink."

Relenting, the scent rolling off too intoxicating to fight any more, he took her outstretched arm and put it to his lips, "Are you sure about this?"

She nodded, bracing herself, "Don't you remember the church? Or is my blood too pure for you to taste while conscious?"

"The church?" His mind flashed back to the first time he had seen her, in his dreams, "You put me into the coffin."

Shrugging, Arianna pushed her bare skin against his lips, "Don't make me force-feed you. Or change my mind about giving you some of my blood every now and again."

Dracul looked at her quizzically, "You... would let a scourge such as myself drink from your chaste veins?"

"Don't get the wrong idea, alright, Vampire? I still intend to kill you, but until I can, it's my job to keep you alive." She offered him her arm for the last time.

Taking it, he sank his teeth into her skin, noting for the first time the faint scars that traced up and down her arm, undoubtedly circling her entire body, leaving it marred and almost patterned, as different from Marie's polished flesh as black was to white. Wait, why would he compare the vision that was his beloved to this wretched little orphan girl? While he had held everything up to her memory, he had never once paralleled anything to her, so why now, and why this girl? Little Aria was indeed an oddity...

Extracting his mouth from her arm, a thin stream of gore drizzling from the puncture wounds, he stood back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing the crimson in the corner of his mouth, "I owe you, Little Aria."

"I know," She smirked, licking away the last of blood away so her skin was spotless, if not glossy from the saliva, "Maybe, if you really wanted to repay me, you could just drop dead when this is all over."

Rejuvenated, he stood up straight, making her realize just how tall and imposing he truly was, his eyes fixed at the cave entrance. Stepping around her, almost volture-like, he slid his arm around her waist, just under the bust, and he grabbed her, drawing her tight. Slightly surprised that she didn't either turn around to try to claw his eyes out or just start screaming at him, he wondered if she had turned a new leaf and this was the start of a cordial working relationship. As if he would want anything more out of her than a morsel. But knowing what he currently knew of Little Aria, she was not the type to suddenly become anything other than a shrew.

As for the girl, she didn't know how he did it, but she could tell that he was preparing to transcend solid matter, disregarding the laws of the physical world. Arianna never had been much for science. But that was probably because of her mother...

_A woman with hair like a river of night, the plain silver bands tying her unforced curls back like ripples, stood over a little girl with hair just as dark, if not darker. The girl, around three or four, with eyes the color of an untamed jungle, gazed up lovingly at the woman, a velevt-bound book her petite hands._

_Smiling down at the child, the woman took the book carefully, opening it to a page marked with a scarlet ribbon, "Have you been reading mommy's book again, Anna?"_

_The girl grinned back sheepishly, "I learned the spell to see fairies."_

_"All by yourself?" Her mother was alarmed, but highly impressed, "Anna, you have a gift... Like me, you can understand the supernatural world that surrounds the human world, even though it separated so long ago... So, he was right after all," She said more to herself than the child, "You really will be special."_

_Just then the door swung open, a fully bearded Lucian coming into the room, and spying the book in his wife's hand, he jumped to the conclusion that she had been reading it to Arianna, "Rosaria, have you been reading that thing to Aria again? Don't you remember what happened last time? She almost..." He couldn't finish the sentence._

_Sensing a fight brewing, Arianna stood between her parents, shaking her head, long French-braid whipping through the air, "Mommy took the book from me. I took it out of the library."_

_"And learned how to see into the world beyond ours." Rosaria beamed proudly at her daughter, "She'll find her way into the supernatural whether or not you like it. Now, why don't we talk more about your day, my dear?"_

Once more standing before the Necronomicon, Dracul and Arianna gazed over at each other, nodding that they would activate their magic at the same time. Mentally counting to three, their hands glowing red and blue respectively, turning violet as the magic overlapped, her hand over his - the forgotten magician repressing a shudder - their fingers brushed the cover, dried from centuries of age. Like a glove, they curved their appendages around the book, pulling it forth, out of the barrier. Once freed, Arianna dropped her hand, withdrawing it as quickly as she possibly could. Pressing his fingertip to the edge of the book, feeling for a seam or some other way to unlock it, it sprang open of its own accord, flipping through pages in a blur, stopping at the page written for transportation spells. Dracul, being what his partner would so kindly refer to as a deceptive deadite, could easily read the passage, the words burning bright in his eyes like fire, but it all seemed like random splats of blood that slid in and out of focus, blurring so badly that she could not make heads or tails of what it said.

Reading aloud, Arianna clamped firmly to his arm so she wasn't left behind, he spoke in what sounded like Latin, "Arcana de inferos."

Blinding light surrounded them, white-blue and blackish-purple all at once, tinted with red of shades of vermillion and crimson, and yellow like the sun, they were surrounded by a flamesless fire. Fearfully, unused to the feeling of being sucked through a vacum and pulled every which way at once, she grasped him tighter, clenching her eyes shut. Speeding through time and space itself, he laughed at her, amused to see the things that made her tick, considering the brave face she wore, almost like a shield to hide the pain the loomed just underneath the surface...

* * *

><p>Woot, the conclusion to the special two-parter!<p>

Anyways, a nice long chapter to tide you all over until the next one, whenever that will be (which considering I'm back in school, who knows)...

And... Tada! A cover, hand-drawn! In my defense, this is my first time not only working grayscale but Castlevania as well, so it might look a little off, and I wasn't sure about what to do with the spare space, so I just stamped the title (sort of) on there.

Anyways, you should review and tell me what you all think!

DO IT!

**NOW!**


	8. Chapter Two: Part One

_Drawing the umber hood tighter around his scruffy face, Lucian Moretti looked up at the quaint, eggshell-white porch of his ramshackle home, torn up on the inside as he gazed at the only source of illumination in the darkness that threatened to shallow the house up, the bright face of his sweet daughter. His precious Aria, the last thing he had left after Rosaria's death... She looked just like her mother, only in miniature, her potential beauty possibly able to overtake the deceased in the very distant future. If it weren't for her, he had no clue as to how he would have dealt with her murder, though if it weren't for her, Rosaria might still... No, he could not blame his daughter, because it was not her fault that he had been gone that night, nor was it her doing that lured the monster to their home..._

_Visions of his dear wife filled his mind even still, her ebony hair tumbling wildly over the hardwood, slick with the crimson blood pooling at her head, her eyes closed, peaceful almost, lips slightly parted as if she had been saying something, some unspoken word dying on her lips... The house had been ripped apart in the scuffle, vases broken in a billion sparkling shards, flowers picked from the alley behind their home strewn haphazardly, furniture rendered little more than stray pieces of timber and cloth, and the pictures cracked in their pearled frames. Vividly, Lucian could still see Aria crying in a corner, nails cutting into her flesh, unable to recount what she had seen. Petrified by what she had gone through that night, the girl had never told him what she had witnessed, and even the so-called specialists and experts could extract nothing from her._

_It had been two years since that incident, and he had not stopped once in his search for the bastard that tore his family apart, leaving his daughter not only motherless but tormented by the nightly nightmares only she knew. He had spent years tracking down all manner of unnatural creatures for Thorn, all in the hopes that he would find the vampire responsible... His patience eventually was rewarded, and he had at last found the demon that had ruined his life..._

_Glancing once more over his shoulder, Lucian smiled at the child waving to him, held back from chasing him by her word to her teacher in the art of combat and self-defense, her tears shining like diamonds through the distance that already separated them, "I'll come back, my Aria. No matter what, I will return."_

_Watching him leave, she knew deep down in her heart of hearts that she would never see him alive again, and yet, she waited for him. Every night and at every chance she got, she would stand outside on the porch, and she would wait. He promised her that he would come back home to her, he promised..._

Solid ground had never once felt more precious than it did at that moment, even if it was dead and the soil was an eroded yellow color that set off the rising sun with a sickly tint. The sky, ablaze with gold and pink from the white sun, was more of a green-blue than the canvas they were used to, similar to the waters of the Caribbean, the single cloud whisping across the sky tinged an acid green, and odd foliage that strongly resembled a closed blossom dotted the horizon. This dimension, it smelled strongly of blood and bell-flowers.

But they had worse things to worry about than the thick atmosphere weighing on their shoulders as their bodies adjusted - the sun was rising, and from the looks of things, they had between ten and fifteen minutes to find a covering for the vampire. And that was if they were lucky... Scurrying like mice under the watchful eye of an owl or a hawk, the mismatched duo dove headfirst into the thicket of thorned brambles, Gabriel dragging Arianna along behind him.

To make matters worse, the things taken to be trees were _alive_, and they were attacking with vines of barbed ivy, wrapping themselves around his wrist and shoulders, creeping up her legs, ensnaring her ankle. Yanking her tessen from her bag, Arianna slashed at the vines, easily severing them - but not before they had begun to sap away Dracul's strength. For whatever reason, they seemed to favor him over her, though that did not mean that she was ignored by the plants...

Grunting, hacking away with one hand and hoisting him onto her shoulder as she sprinted as fast as she could while lugging all that extra weight around through the copse, Arianna could see a light at the end of this hell, "We're almost through. Just a little longer, big guy-"

Even as she said that, she stumbled upon a crystalline rock, falling through a thin layer of earth coated by a moss-like substance, hiding it from sight, tumbling down, down, down. With no time to spare, she quickly stored her weapon so it didn't suffer any damage, landing unceremoniously on her back, partner sprawled on top of her, his eyes half closed, skin ashing from the sun that shone overhead. Rolling him over and therefore out of the rays of light that filtered through the holes in the ground - unconsciously mounted on his lap - she gazed down at him, watching in rapt fascination as the crisping reversed itself, restoring him back to normal. Not that she would admit that it was interesting to watch.

But he was still weak from the plants above, so very weak, "So he lives... Damn."

Deceptively drained, though not nearly as pitiful as the mortal took him to be, he took her by surprise, tossing them both to the side so that he was straddling her, stopping when she was on her back, breathless._ Caught off guard yet again, no doubt. Assuming that she had a guard to begin with. Or was it that she was secretly aroused by his dominance? The "monster" that had robbed her of everything she knew and held dear. Wouldn't that be rich? As if he could ever look beyond the glamor of food and agitation she represented, or hold a woman that was not his beloved Marie. No, she seemed more the type to love no_ _one_... Either way, the sweet nectar of life pounding in her heart was too alluring to ignore. He had tasted her blood, and it would be a lie to say that he wasn't craving more...

Running his fingers up her bare neck, brushing aside a stray sable lock, not waiting for permission as he positioned her head up, their eyes meeting, he lowered his mouth to her neck, biting down just underneath her erratic pulse. Tilting her head back, the blood gushing forth in a stream that was anything but steady, her chest heaving at his electric touch, eyes batting closed, her hand griped his wrist.

"Enough," Shocked that her voice made it passed her lips, she pulled at his wrist, trembling voice little more than a whimper, "Stop..."

* * *

><p>At long last, the long-awaited Second Chapter! And wow, that was tree sex if I'd ever seen it...! Whoo...<p>

Anyways, constant gratitude for SuperiorDimwit, yet again! And I just noticed something….. A Der moment that, as the author, I should have seen (or maybe I did when I first started this but just forgot that I knew) : Rosaria and Arianna's names both have "Aria" in it. Was it planned? We may never know…..


	9. Chapter Two: Part Two

It wasn't that the taste of her blood was special in any particular way, but did seem almost addictive, as if he would die if he couldn't have it any more, but that was probably just because she was the first thing he had eaten without finishing. Yet. But still, it was so hard for him to not take from her, not since he had his first taste of her delicious juice, the giver of all life. The thirst was always there, but like a shadow, it was neither overwhelming nor cumbersome when he was at his prime, and thanks to those overgrown mandagoras, he was not.

So, when he had the chance, the exposed flesh of her neck taunting him with untold promises, he had turned the tables on Little Aria, pinning her to the ground, just as she had been straddling him moments before. Tracing the invisible path of her arteries with his fingers, caressing the skin, and smoothing away a stray hair so his sight of the unadulterated beauty that was her neck was unobscured, he positioned her head with ease finding no resistance in her. It was so much easier when his prey would act like the complacent sheeple that they were...

Rising and falling so rapidly, it looked as if, were it not for the short leather vest she wore and the shoulder-less lacy undershirt of electric sage that scooped just under her collarbone, her breasts would have burst from her fine silk corset. Her heart-rate was so spastic, it nearly could have been danced to, the thumping echoing in his head, miraculously not driving him mad. Er. Glancing her over, maybe searching for even one small sign of a struggle, their eyes met, and for the first time in that one frantic millisecond, Arianna noticed that beyond the savage red hue his eyes now had, there was a remainder of blue.

Sinking his fangs into her neck, her head falling back to allow a deeper drink, eyes fluttering someplace between shock, disbelief and pleasure, she could feel that he was being too greedy, so she grabbed his wrist, muttering meekly, "Enough. Stop..."

Hearing her more in the back of his head than actually right next to himself, ration crept into the frenzy to gently remind him that if he killed her now, he could not enjoy her blood again, so he backed away, "Forgive me."

Sitting up, her back resting against the nearby wall, she scowled at him, clamping her hand to her neck to try to stem the bleeding, "In your dreams, Vampire!" Fumbling one-handedly through her bag, she sighed in frustration, unable to unfasten the button, "If you want to repent so badly, go to the second inside pocket on the left. The LEFT!"

Curious by her adamant instructions that he should not search in the right pocket, seeing no reason to respect the privacy of a creature lower than dirt in his eyes, mulling over all the various trinkets she could have stashed away, he reached into her bag, to the second inside pocket - on the right - and pulled out a string of ivory velvet, a delicate silver locket in the shape of a heart dangling from a square-cut ruby. It was an exquisite piece of craftsmanship, too lovely for such a sour being, possibly befitting the pinnacle of royalty, and it made no sense why a ruffian such as Arianna would have it. Unless... Looking between the choker and girl it belonged to, thoughts of Marie yet again weighing heavily in his mind, he carefully placed it in her hands, noticing that she could not fully bring herself to look at it, or him.

Hastily grabbing the bandages from the correct pouch, no more eager to look upon Aria than she was to behold him, he tended to her neck and quickly wrapped her neck with several layers of thin gauze as she looked down at the ground, fighting back the tears of so many years ago. The locket hung limp in her hand, locked tightly, just as the memories in her heart were. It had been such a long time since she had gazed upon her mother's favorite possession, the item encased inside a mystery even now, as she felt she had not gained the right to open it, even though it had been over a decade since her death.

Shaking her head after several minutes of gloomy silence, beating back the ghosts of her past, she stood up, gingerly replacing the secret treasure in her pack, "We should probably head out..."

Swaying dangerously in place before she could so much as take a step, dizzy from all the blood she had recently lost, he realized that they had to stay there until she was better. Wonderful. Settling back against the opposite side of the cave, as far from her as he could be, he looked up, watching the dust dancing in the rays of sun that penetrated the crystal cave. How long had it been now since he had felt the warmth of the sun without it burning his skin? The long hours of light that would be spent with Marie? Knowing it had been over a millennia, he had lost count of the individual years that passed by in a monotonous blur...

Hours had passed in that place, minutes upon minutes spent in grim, reflective silence, the sun moving over its zenith forcing him to vacate him place and move closer to Arianna, though several feet still stood between them...

"It was my mother's. After my father..." She shook her head, breaking the heavy air at long last, in too much pain - both physical and psychologically - to berate him about the cloak, beginning once more, "Once I was alone in the world, to make sure that no one could find anything that could hurt me, I burned down my home, along with everything we owned. All I had with me was the clothes on my back, and my father's cloak, and..."

"The necklace." Filled with fresh remorse for the first time in centuries, he reached out for her shoulder, only for Little Aria to shrug his hand away, "Arianna, I had no idea..."

To test her strength, she kicked at a stray stone, rolling it only a few feet, "It doesn't matter now. The damage has been done already, and now you, the thing I dislike most in this world, know my sob story. But what about you?" She gestured around, perking up ever so slightly, the color gradually coming back to her face, "I doubt that we'll get out any time soon, so we might as well make camp. So tell me something about you. It's only fair, given how much you know about me."

He might as well kill the time, considering that now that they had made it this far, he couldn't leave without her, and what would it hurt, telling her his own story, "What do you want to know about me?"

The corner of her mouth twitched in a smile, pleased that he was being so obliging, also finding it a little unnerving, as he seemed to be a very difficult being, "What's in it for you? Why go after Lucifer?"

"To end my immortality. This life has lost all meaning for me, so there is no point in living any further."

"There was meaning to it once?" She inquired.

He laughed bitterly, "I was a man, once. I had a life, and a love. But I was played for a fool, and I lost it all..." He could see the smug face of Lucifer even as he spoke, "There is not a day that goes by that I don't mourn for my loss, numb as I am now."

She had not expected this turn of events, this discovery that he wasn't begotten in the deepest, darkest pits of hell that even the devil himself feared, "What was your name?"

"My name?" He repeated in confusion, expecting her to question his life and the events he had lived through over something as trivial as his name.

She nodded.

"Gabriel."

"Gabriel," She tested his name, finding it better than what she had been calling him before, "It fits you. Not that I'm promising that I'm done calling you Vampire." She stuck her tongue out, "I could use a long story to help send me off, so, Vampire, tell me the story of Gabriel. Or need I remind you that if it weren't for you, we could be on the move right about now?"

Rolling his eyes at her, he waited for her to get as comfortable as she could before telling her his story, the story of the Lords of Shadow...

* * *

><p>Ok, so basically the second chapter is nothing like what I planned originally, but I suppose that that's not entirely a bad thing, as this improvement is a good thing. Again, not the longest chapter in the story, but not the shortest either... Besides, it's more about content than word count anyways!<p>

But my readers, I must ask, is it good content? Feedback, feedback, feedback! Just saying...


	10. Chapter Two: Part Three

Getting so far as the second Lord before she had fallen into the deep sleep of the healing and the unwell, the emerald huntress lost to the world in a slumber that seemed preternatural, Dracul closed his eyes for just a moment. He no longer required sleep to keep himself fit for the fight, but it hurt nothing to do it all the same. He wondered what biting remark Little Aria would have for him if she could see him now. _So it _can_ sleep! And what's more, the beast doesn't hang from the ceiling like some overgrown, geriatric bat. _The voice in his mind matched her's with such perfection, it was almost eery. Almost, were it not for the amount of time she seemed to spend belittling him.

_Rustle. Rustle._ It sounded like the mutated foliage above was in a tizzy, fighting amongst each other ravenously, slaying indiscriminately with no-holds-barred. Was it that they would turn inwards without sustenance after so long, or perhaps by night when the sun was no longer blazing overhead, or was there possibly someone else there? Perking his ears up despite his superior senses, he strained to hear what was going over over his head, however, just as suddenly as noise had started, there was silence. Ringing, immaculate silence.

After a moment of this, the Prince of the Night wondering if his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, a shadow, intangible as smoke, stood over the hole some fifty feet up and, reaching into an inside pocket, extracted a rope. Lowering the lightly tanned, braided material, the figure patiently waited for the lordly vampire to make the first move. Going to Aria's side, he shook her shoulder roughly, always keeping one eye on the apparition, but she only turned over in her sleep, grunting softly. Sighing inwardly at the constant problem she was, he tossed her bag over his shoulder, and scooping her up none too gently, carrying her against his side as if she were an over-sized infant, took her to the prone shape firmly grasping their exit. With his one free hand, he grasped the rope, surprised with the ease and speed in which they were soaring through the sky and hoisted to solid ground.

"What are you?" He wearily asked the empty space, the figure ghosting away as if it was never there in the first place.

Making up for lost time - no thanks to his cumbersome ally - he moved the refrigerator to his back, slinging her arm across his chest and holding it there for an extra safety precaution should she begin to slip, he sped through the withered underbrush, in a western direction, where the horizon was less even, punctured in the distance by what appeared to be either a grand mansion or a run-down castle. This form of travel was so much more convenient than what he was limited to with a conscious meat-sack dragging him down with all of her petty mortal needs...

_Cornell's part over and done, bladder held to the limit and beyond to hear the tale out, she could resist her natural human urges no longer. Arianna had tried, but it was a losing battle that was going to cost her dearly if she didn't surrender soon, so being polite as she could about it, mostly due to the captivating narrative that earned her interest than respect in the rascal that had lived it, she held up her index finger to silence him. Unthinkingly, she sprung up from the ground practically giving herself whiplash.  
><em>

_Reaching for her zipper, she paused when she noticed that he was watching her still, confounded by her actions, "Do you mind? I have to take a leak."  
><em>

_Gathering what she so crassly put, or crass considering the age in which he had lived, he scoffed at her bluntness, "You act like you're better than me, and yet you use such terms. Marie would never speak so indelicately."  
><em>

_Squatting down, going about her business with embarrassment, she spoke to divert the attention away from herself, "Marie? It sounds like you left out a large chunk of your story, Gabriel. Your sister, perhaps?"  
><em>

_"My wife." _

_She could imagine the coldness in his eyes as he said that, the raw pain he must have still felt over her loss. Wait, why was she sympathizing with him? He was her mortal enemy, was he not? Maybe not quite her_ mortal_ enemy at this stage_..._ But no matter what he was to her now, she was going to stick to her word and kill him. She had to, becuase she owed her father that much...  
><em>

_"Your wife?" Little Aria repeated softly, voice a little tight, "I should have known. After all, you did say that you had a love, once. What happened to her?"  
><em>

_"..." He glanced over his shoulder at her, tone clipped and final as the grave, "She died."  
><em>

He had not fully been honest when he told Aria of Marie's death, leaving out that he himself had been her murderer, but why did she need to know that? She judged him enough as it was, and if she knew what he was capable of... Perhaps he should tell her the full truth and put her in her place, frighten her into seeing that a delicate daisy had no place growing in the raging ocean, but now was not the time for harsh realities, not when they had larger concerns...

Gothic towers jutting into the midnight sky like ditch water washing over the sands of white beaches, obscuring the pregnant moon where the misty red clouds did not, the duo stood outside of the onyx castle gates, rusted closed with age. Sleeping beauty had woken at last - Dracul may or may not have let her fall from his back and into a pricker bush - moodily gathering their situation. Weren't they stranded in a pitfall when she fell asleep? So why all the sudden were they back at ground-level, gazing up at a castle that had seen better days? The rafters bare in several places, the thatched roof torn away by the cold ravages of time, nature, and beasts, entire sections of wall caved in, revealing plundered hallways and ransacked rooms with marble floors and gold-leaf walls. The destruction brought back flashes of home...

_Come along, _An echoing voice, commanding and husky, rang in Aria's head, _Enter my castle, and come find me in the throne._

Looking at Gabriel to see if he heard it too, she was astonished to see that she was alone in hearing the voice, his expression quizzical when she inquired, "Did you hear that?"_  
><em>

"I don't have time for your foolish mortal games, little one. We wasted enough time in that cave, so let us continue," He pulled her up, "Or do you want to stay here a little longer?"

Shaking her head, Arianna followed him to the gate...

* * *

><p>Concerning Hobbits...<p>

Just kidding, this is only Castlevania! Pft, I offended myself with that remark...

On a more serious note, the bathroom bit was done simply because not enough things point out the natural parts of life, and for another, I would imagine things like using the bathroom are a marked difference between humans and vampires. But what do I know?

And, on a huge matter - As I am working on my first novel, ALL of my stories will hereby be put on indefinite hold. I will continue my work on this and all of my other fics, but only at a time as I am able to, thank you, and I hope that you all understand.


	11. Chapter Two: Part Four

Liking the situation less and less, Dracul and Arianna proceeded to the front gate of the castle, Aria keeping mute about the voice that beckoned to her and her alone, and no sooner had they entered the courtyard of the other-worldly castle than the cool night air was torn asunder by the unmistakable howls of a mongrel breed. Irritated but untroubled by this new development, the duo pressed on, keeping a sharp eye as they passed the half ripped-away metal of a once-mighty fence now twisted into gruesome snarls and menacing curls, hands tight on their weapons as they walked.

"You wouldn't have any more gadgets to clear them up quickly, would you?" Eyes sweeping through the rubble, he caught sight of pitch black fur gleaming as it streaked across the darkness, slipping through a section of broken rails. Unmistakably werewolf, it seemed as if it was a different species of the same creature.

Seeing the same, she shook her head, "Just one, but I'm saving that for a real situation..."

Annoying and condescending as she could be, Little Aria was not without her moments of amusement. Or should he say that she was not without her moments of intentional wit? Being who and what he was, it took a considerable amount to concern him, and being who and what she was... Well, it was amusing for him to see that they had this one thing in common: they were both underwhelmed by this onslaught of gathering fur.

Surrounded fairly fast, they both nodded briefly in the others direction, silently communicating that it was fair game to go all out at this juncture and give themselves a bit of a warm-up for the real fight to come, so long as they didn't over do it, which mostly meant the warrioress. Slashing and hacking in a flash of silver and evil, the hunters tore through the ravenous pack like a greedy child would wrapping paper.

Nothing but small fry, a sweat was barely broken as they swept through the horde, decimating numbers that would make an ordinary soul swoon, but they were not normal, nor had they ever been... No, not the man that once held such promise within the Brotherhood before succumbing to the darkness nor the girl that taught herself to see the magic behind the mundane. A bit disappointed in this challenge, Dracul sprung up into the sky, leaping from decimated wall to tilting tower as if it were nothing, leaving his partner behind as he scouted the area and dealt with any stragglers. Affronted by the rude manner in which he just vanished, although not shocked in any way, Arianna took the chance to listen more closely for the voice that called to her earlier.

"What are you, what do you want?" The mortal declared firmly as she kicked aside a stray bramble, walking ever closer to the cracking mortar, careful not to be too loud lest she rouse suspicion, "Answer me!"

Chuckling, the voice replied, clearer now that they were closer to the heart of the castle, _Little one, you can relax... I don't intend to play games with you, not when i have more important matters to see to._

Wondering if she should address the bodiless one out loud or in her own head, Arianna spoke softly, almost whispering, "Why can't my partn - " she stopped, realizing that it would be almost a compliment to put that creature on her own level, "why can't he hear you too?"

At this, the voice sounded almost bored, _Oh, you mean that beastly man accompanying you? Hmph! He's of no immediate interest to me..._

"But I am?" Being a huntress, the only interest she was used to being was of the dinner variety, not that that sat very well with her.

_It's not every day one sees a human escorting a demon, let alone through this place. Tell me little girl, are you his concubine? Or perhaps a slave to be traded for sacrifice?_

What was it with everyone calling her that? Arianna wasn't a little girl, so why was she constantly getting addressed in that manner?! The Vampire Gabriel, she understood that he liked to get under her skin, and fair is fair, but she didn't even know if this voice had a corporeal form or not!

But believe it or not, that was not what had just affected her, "Con..." She sputtered angrily, sounding not unlike a cat, "...Concubine?! Why I never! How dare you think I could serve a thing like that! Just thinking about touching that monster makes my skin crawl! Disgusting! How you could ever think such a thing when we clearly despise each other?!"

Whatever the voice was, it seemed to have as much fun tormenting her as the vampire did, _You do get upset so easily - you must really like 'that monster' to get so flustered at almost no prodding... After all, so many of the most passionate love stories come from the roots of hatred..._

"That is it!" Shaking all over, Arianna pointed at the direction-less sky, unable to keep her voice down, "I don't love that treacherous spawn vampire!"

"Let us hope not," Returning more silent than the void of space and more discreetly than the shadows of a forbidding moon, Dracula stood just behind Arianna, his arms crossed against his massively bare chest and an unimpressed look on his face, "Besides betraying everything you claim to stand for, falling in love with me will bring you only into a new world full of unimaginable suffering."

At that moment, the living jungle could have come to life and unleashed its full force upon the world, but as it was, she decided that her best response would be a short sarcastic one, "Spending an eternity with you could only be matched by the endless ailments inflicted by the highest choir of fallen seraphim. In other words, I would rather burn in hell than be your bride. Thanks though!"

She put on a cheerful grin as if she actually meant it, but he knew that he could save her from certain death and it would be unlikely that she would ever properly thank him, so even if the emotion was still within his grasp, he still probably wouldn't have felt bad for saying, "You think that I would ever make someone like you immortal?" He thought about it for a moment, "The agony you would go through in just your first moments alone would be something truly fantastic to behold, but you, Little Aria, would no doubt find some way to pay me back, so I can promise you now that under no circumstance shall I change you into what I am."

He had meant to add in only one more point, that he had already given his heart away, and even should he find his mortality once more, not that he was expecting to, there was not a woman alive that could stand a chance. He had found his soul mate in life, and he had lost all desire to love with her death...

"Good, because there is no way that I'm going to change my mind about killing you!" She stormed off before another word could be uttered, although she had no idea where she was going.

_I never said anything about loving him..._ The voice rubbed it in, getting the last word.

Beyond screaming at the heavens and swearing her tongue raw, the dark-haired girl punched the wall with all of her might. Naturally nothing happened to the individually cut stone, but when her fist collided with the vertical surface, a ripple went through her entire body and tears sprang up in the corner of her eyes - her hand had been broken, or at the very least sprained. To test this hypothesis, she attempted to move every specific digit in her arsenal and was dismayed to find that only her thumb and pinky could dance at her command.

Yelping from the pain, far too gone into her emotions to bother pretending anymore, Arianna looked around hopelessly, not expecting either of her banes to assist her, so taking a deep breath and holding it in, she grabbed her hand with the working one and popped each respective finger back into place with a series of sounds almost sickening even to her companion. Almost, were that not that sort of sound that brought him great whiffs of sadistic pleasure. It was a good thing that only three of her tactile members were offset, because she was almost certain that she could not endure having to fix another at that moment.

Regardless of the obvious pain she had put herself through, Dracul was immensely impressed that she could suck it up like that and do what needed to be done. True, as a mortal man he would have done the same, and he probably had at some point or another, but to see a woman act so audaciously was not only out of the norm for him, it was just not what he had come to expect from them. True, there was once a girl that might have done the same, that pretty mute one, but it would have been different, because they were just two opposing kinds. _What was her name again? _Time stole a great deal, and to ease the pain, he had almost given it all up at once. Or, he had tried...

Looking down at the gauntlet he wore, Dracul could clearly envision her youthful face, so sweet and full of hope, but still her name eluded him. _But how?_ He had spoken it earlier when recounting Gabriel's tale, so why now was it lost to him?

* * *

><p>Alrighty, I'm back! For now...<p>

Nope, still working on that same idea I left you all for, but I came back to deliver the next chapter, courtesy of inspiration from '_Mirror of Fate'_! I don't have a DS, 3DS, or whatever the latest Nintendo handheld is called, but I was watching some videos of it, not that that's really relevant. Maybe I didn't, but I'm pretty sure I've said that this is just a possibility of events, and now with that game, this story is truly an alternate universe of an alternate universe now. Anyways, I didn't mean to make this chapter a comical one, but what happens in... Castlevania stays in Castlevania...? Is that right? Oh well, it is now!


	12. Chapter Two: Part Five

Carrying on, injured hand wrapped up tight in a roll of gauze bandages from her supply bag, the duo could locate but one entrance inside the castle: Looming high above and stacked with a series of platforms, there was an open section of wall not boarded up, but it would take cooperation to reach it. And cooperation was something that those two sorely lacked at the best of times...

And considering that moods were still in full swing over the last matter of discussion, this was one of those times...

_Were it just me, I could just use one of my abilities to get inside that tower, but because of her dead weight _- and the fact that he was still regaining all of his stamina after the Mandragora attack and therefore lacked the powers needed to carry them both inside in one piece - _and how frail the structure is, a wrong move could make the gap close for good..._

_Were it just me, I could scale the wall with my tessen, but the walls look thin, so I'd have to hurry before the whole thing falls on me..._ Looking once more at the fermenting citadel, she could see that there was no place for her fans to stick into, not near the base at any rate.

But, they both noticed, there was a chance they would only have to work together part of the way...

Scaffolding was positioned all around, left up after the crude repairs had been done to the fortress, leaving a perfect stepping stone to get roughly half-way there, and they both knew that he easily had the power for that much, so now it was just an issue of getting up there. Holding it in, the pride and disgust in equal measure, Dracul took her by the waist once more - both feeling the sense that that was happening too frequently for either of their liking, Aria noting that while he wasn't handsy about it, there seemed to be liberty about his sudden movements - holding her just close enough as he grabbed at the nearest ascension point with his whip.

Sturdy enough to hold their combined weight, he let go of the girl so quickly that anyone's head would spin, not that she was in any rush to cling to her father's murderer. As if she would even look twice at a scoundrel like the vampire!_ Stupid voice, idiot vampire... Things had been just fine until they had to brandy about such outrageous accusations..._

The next point was a series of repels and jumps, so changing positions, she climbed onto his back, holding her elbow firmly to his throat - strangely without the intention to throttle him - and barring a confirmation that she was secure, they were off, zipping through the air, kicking from ledges that held only long enough for them to make it across. Up, up, up, left, down, right, over, under, and over again, it made her dizzy to keep up with the path of their movements.

At the last stage, ascending over the dais with a flourish as she split from his form with a twirl of her own, he landed neatly at the very center of the wooden core, whereas she finished on a section of rotting wood that gave way under her bones. Crumbling away instantaneously, Arianna was gone from sight in the blink of an eye, falling through a hole in the sky that ended rather suddenly with more than a simple pinch or poke. Falling so swiftly, there was no time to scream, the needle-tip of the spike growing closer and larger in her dilated pupils as the spears dangled just a hair from blinding her for good.

Using his altered yet favored weapon of choice, Dracul was able to save her from having her head skewered at the last minute, the barbed chain catching her fast by the ankle, inevitably sawing through the leather of her boot, tickling the padded material of her singed heather pants. Jerking it back with ease, he allowed his green-grey catch to flop on the more durable wood at his foot, bouncing on her rump as she descended, looking a little green around the gills. Not even giving her a moment to register that she had fallen into a pit of stakes or that her head had almost been run through by a wooden pole, he rounded in on her for her carelessness.

Reprimanded for not paying better attention to her surroundings, she gathered that he was worried about her - not for her, but about her, as it was obvious by this point that they suspended their individual conceptions to view the other as a tool to be used to obtain a larger goal. A tool covered in the most unsavory of substances, but a tool nonetheless. But even knowing that, she couldn't help but to think of her father scolding her so many years ago, not out of anger as it had seemed at the time, but because he was afraid for her safety, so for that reason alone, she took it, remaining attentively silent as the creature of the night gave her a stern talking to. Maybe it was the lack of paternal attention throughout her life speaking, but she thought that he might make a good father...

She was so stunned by his rapid heroics and grateful for the needless verbal lashing that she even thanked him, albeit grudgingly, "Thank you, Vampire..." She amended, "Gabriel."

To say that he was startled by her words was an understatement of almost criminal proportions, but he still had a reply for her all the same, "Just be thankful that you screamed-"

"But I didn't scream..." She looked at him fully for the first time in what seemed to be ages, almost smiling slightly to see that the look of scorn or bafflement he wore when looking at her was replaced with a new kind of fluster, "...You acted on instinct, didn't you?"

Being a master of darkness, he didn't need to explain anything to anyone, let alone such a troublesome mortal girl, "..."

She laughed, "You did! You saved me without even having to think about it!"

Glaring, the response to come to him was as true as it was speedy, "Were you not such a burden, I wouldn't have to spend half of my time having to look behind me."

"So, what you're saying is that you keep looking at me..." She snorted, glad to be able to turn the tables on him this time, "And here I thought that I was the one to fall in love with you!"

Getting her point, he relaxed some, "In another life, you could have been jester."

She smirked, "Not so fun, is it? Let's just agree that the only thing we'll ever feel for each other is hatred, disgust, or whatever else being mortal enemies entails, shall we?"

He extended his hand, "Agreed."

* * *

><p>Sponge? I don't know what to say first!<p>

Oh, duh, how about how freaking excited I am for LoS2?! I heard that my main cast is back too! Just to be clear, when I say 'my', I mean the three that truly matter to me - Gabriel, Satan, and Zobek. But, that's just what I heard, so unfortunately, it may not be true... Hey, I'm not a believer until I know, you know?

And also, I'm glad to see that people still are liking this story! I'm just sorry its taking me so damn long to put it all out...

Thinking in terms of a game energy bar (the kind that refills on its own, but personally I prefer the system used in the first game), Gabriel should be at full strength right about now, but because of such factors as the fact that I have to compare him to a human, and to account for a more realistic sense of time, it is taking a while for him to be a hundred percent. I would imagine using those kinds of powers takes a lot out of one, vampire or not, but I would hazard that he's almost there, like at about 80-95 percent.


	13. Chapter Two: Part Six

Having reached an accord to never cross the line of adversaries working in an ad interim collaboration, Dracul and Arianna took an inconsequential respite to replenish and strategize, meaning that the female descendant of man perched at the edge of the tottering platform with her back to him while they waited for the hunky hellion to have the clout to hoist them both up to the entrance. Besides the blood-red disk looming overhead, steadily seeping its color from the night sky, tinted a brackish violet, the landscape surrounding the ruined castle was actually quite breathtaking to behold, and nothing like what any living soul could imagine. Beyond the buzzing of unknown creatures hidden in the tangle of shrubbery that they had arrived in, there was a gigantic range of colorless crystal mountains in the distance. Somehow, this place seemed familiar...

Captured in her own silent musings, Arianna thought of something, "You said in your story that there was a witch named Malphas, right? In Thorn, there was a legend of a bird-witch of the same name. I was wondering if you knew the truth? Was it the same woman, do you know?"

Looking up at the starless sky, eyes half-lidded as he thought, he was hit by the memory of climbing over a tower wall of pure rock, hands holding fast to the sleek greenery as he pulled himself up, of a great crow-like beast that would spew her half-living offspring at any intruder, and with absolute clarity, he remembered tearing her head from her corpse, watching grimly as her body spun into the abyss below, "Aye, there was a Malphas, and she might have been one in the same, but alas I never knew her story..."

_The story of Malphas was a sad one, drenched in more tragedy and loss than can be told in a single night..._

_Once, long before Gabriel's time and some time after the founding of the Brotherhood of Light, there was a most beautiful woman by the name of Malphas, second in looks only to Lady Carmilla in the eyes of some. Famed more for her hair as glossy as a raven's wing than by the trade in which she practiced, her skin as dark and complex as the soul of the man that won her heart, she was entangled with the order so closely at one time, there was not a soul alive that knew if she was a victim or a vixen, playing the Brotherhood for fools. But that was so long ago now, and the politics play no part in her ultimate fate - no larger part..._

_Adored, there had been many a suitor clamoring for her hand, all but the eyes of a woman blind, and yet for all of the attention her looks had garnered, there was one man and one man alone that she had fallen in love with..._

_Zobeck. As devoted as his heart was to the cause and goals of the order in which he helped create, there was a hole there that only one woman, one person could fill... And so, they had become lovers, paving the way for so many after them, but alas, it was not to be a joyous union, for not long after that had the founders three set off, eventually becoming the three Lords of Shadow..._

_And all had been lost... Or so everyone had thought. But Malphas knew, she knew that they had survived, that Zobeck was still out there somewhere, but there were none who would believe her, thinking that her loyalty and faith had become so horribly distorted as her heart gave way to the darkness..._

_Matters of her life became much more complicated when her business began to dwindle - who wanted to buy goods from a madwoman? - and she discovered that she was no longer alone to suffer... _

_Unwed, Malphas and the unborn child had been shunned from the Brotherhood, cast into the wilderness, where, unable to care for the creature growing in her womb, she had lost the final link to her love that she had... Pushed over the brink of madness, Malphas had sold her soul for the power to bring back the child she had lost, but in doing so had transformed herself into a hideous bird-creature. Alive once more the child had been born into a brief life of starvation, and unable to adapt to its new bird-like lifestyle, perished not long afterwards. _

_Wracked once more by grief, Malphas lost whatever sense of humanity she had left, not even once recognizing the face of her beloved when he came to find her..._

The story of Malphas had been a point of interest to most throughout the ages, although Arianna had only entertained it, too busy training herself for her own dark fate, so it was strange now that she should be thinking of it at all, "In the hopes that they could break me of my desire," She found herself confiding, not necessarily to Gabriel but just to the space, "the elders would frequently tell me various versions of the story, perverting the details so that I might understand their point, but I never really listened to them..."

Little Aria, not listening to someone else? That was preposterous! "And what point was that?"

"That I should give up my dreams of revenge, that I shouldn't let the death of a loved one drive me to the point where I could lose myself... They told me that unlike Malphas, who lost herself in her own selfish designs, I should forgive those that wronged me..." She looked over her shoulder at him, eyes shining ever so slightly, "Even knowing that you are a vampire, the bane of our existence, they wanted me to forgive you, saying that you acted as any animal will. Even if that is true, could you forgive the one that took everything from you? Can you look me in the eye right now and say that you could pardon the person that ruined your chance at happiness? If they had taken your Marie from you, could you so easily exonerate them their sin?"

Perhaps it was rhetorical, or maybe she was truly asking him what he thought, but no matter what her meaning was, he knew the answer already...

Gabriel could never forgive himself for what he did to Marie, what he did to Trevor...

* * *

><p>Just keep writing, just keep writing...<p>

Hey, I just noticed something about the last chapter - they both begin and end with the mention of the same extremity!

Anyways, I was playing the game again, specifically that level, I was thinking to myself that why mention something like that and not have anything come of it? I mean Zobeck, in all his stalker knowledge, mentioned that Malphas had a love once, and yet no more was said. I wonder if maybe he wasn't that very same love? He's immortal, so why not have at least one romance?

Also, I don't think that Gabriel would have said "alas" where he did, but to me the line didn't sound right without it, so there we are...

Maybe at this point its too late to add Trevor, but I just wouldn't feel right leaving his son out of the mix!


	14. Chapter Two: Part Seven

Alighting inside a vast vestibule, the ceiling vaulted and punctured with flame at regular intervals, electric light running alongside the elaborately trimmed walls, the vertical stripes painted butter and maroon, Dracul and Arianna gazed around in pure shock - how in the world was the inside so luxurious and well cared for when the outside was crumbling into shambles? Running up and down either side of the hallway were family tapestries, depicting battles overcome, the freshly waxed floor gleaming up silvery reflections of gory decapitations and burnings so real that one could almost feel the heat tickling the hair on the back of one's neck. Since their arrival in this place had been narrow, it all seemed even more out of place to the duo.

"A castle in a place like this is strange enough," Arianna spun around on her heel, looking at the various scenes in the woven paintings, bumping into her partner by accident, "Sorry. But something this grand...?"

He stiffed a hollow laugh, almost forgetting the centuries that separated them, that things he had lived with were no longer still around, and that things that would have seemed natural to an ordinary woman of her age were completely unfathomable to him, "Oh, Little Aria, I forget sometimes that you come from a time that is so different from my own... This castle is grand, but I have seen grander still..." He neglected to say that he had owned grander than this diminishing butterfly.

She had fully expected him to say something about her passing apology - more of an impulse than a sincere thing - and at first she thought that he might have missed it, but then she remembered who she was dealing with, so she realized that he had merely chosen to let it slide. Dracul, being the more mature of them on a number of levels, realized that if they stopped to bicker about every last exchange they made, whether good or bad, they would never make it to Satan in this life, so he had allowed her remark to slide.

Besides, it was kind of nice to be in a place where not every last ounce of kindness, whether intentional or not, was put under a microscope and mocked...

"There's a fireplace." Arianna pointed at the opposite end of the hallway, where there in fact was a roaring fire, embroidered pillows set before the blaze in a comfortable-looking semicircle.

But if there was a fireplace, then that meant that there had to be a place for it to get out of, and judging from the fact that their clothes and bodies, although coated in sweat, blood, and dirt, were not drenched in soot, there was more than just the one entrance... Well, reguardles, they were inside now anyways.

"Sire, Madame," A figure in a simple sable suit stepped forth from the shadows, his hook-nose glowering with a bronze tint in the firelight, hands laced stiffly behind his back, "My master has been waiting for your arrival for quite some time now."

Jumping a little, she looked over to her unfazed companion, "Yeah?"

Nodding at her, Gabriel followed the servant of the mysterious castle owner, growing more and more cautious that this could be a trap with every increasing step. Arianna followed him closely, her eyes roaming every corner, searching every item for hints of an ambush. Their guide could see her paranoia and sense the vampire's tension, but remained as silent as the grave.

Leading them through a foyer hung with flowing white veils and silver ropes, the marble underfoot checkered like a chessboard turned on its side, the butler stopped suddenly, spinning his wrist outwards as he addressed a high-backed throne, the details and shadow sitting upon it obscured by a smoky curtain, "My master, may I have the distinct honor of presenting you our awaited guests?"

A hand in an arm-length black leather glove motioned for the hunters to step forth, which they did only hesitantly, Dacul taking the lead, "How do you know of us?"

"Tut-tut," the 'master' tsked, stepping forth from the throne, the light bouncing from sun-kissed waves of a feminine nature, voice naturally a sultry husk, "That is hardly the way to greet a host!"

_The voice from_ earlier! Ariana realized with a cold snap,_ It was a woman...?! And such a pretty one..._

Glancing over at the girl by the vampire's side, eyes of an iced mocha met with a combusting forest, _I can see why you are so found of your prey, little Diana... He is quite easy on the eyes, do you not agree?_

"I don't..." Arianna looked away uncomfortably, not finishing her sentence either mentally or out loud.

The mistress of the castle scoffed playfully at her, "Of course you don't..." A tall woman, she easily stood over the girl, so Arianna thought that she didn't need to wear such outlandishly tall heels, nor extend the look of her legs with her choice of semi-sheer clothing, "Now, before we get to it, I do suppose that introductions are in order, are they not? Jonathan, would you be so kind?" She motioned for her servant to leave them be, which he did, clearly unconcerned for his master's safety as he retreated, "Now, as it's only courtesy, I shall introduce myself first!" Her painted lips curled in a welcoming grin, lips almost puckered in the direction of her stoic male guest, "I, the master of this castle and the last descendant of a once great clan of vampire hunters, am known as Sonja... But I'm not opposed to changing that for an hour or two..."

Uneasy about the way the _much_ older woman was looking at Dracul, she cleared her throat, stepping closer to assert her presence, "Arianna. So, you said that you've been waiting for us?"

"Yes, I know who you are..." Sonja peeled her eyes a little too slowly from the vampire for Arianna's liking, "Your father was a good man. Good hunter. But..." She shook her head, thinking better of it, "Nevermind. And you, you took my family to battle a number of times throughout the years... But then again, you took a number of families to battle, didn't you, Lord Dracula?"

"Dracul." Arianna said sharply, speaking defensively before he could so much as open his mouth. It was rather amusing to him to watch how short Little Aria was being, slightly curious to know if it was because that was simply her attitude towards other women in general or not.

Sonja merely shrugged at the impatient girl, "National dialects have a way of changing things, and heaven knows how far his name has spread..." Looking over her shoulder for a moment or two at a wall lined with life-size reliefs, she went on, sounding much more invested this time, "When we heard that you had taken to sleep, a great number of the clans were surprised, and when news reached us about Lucifer... Well, let's just say that there was a bit of a division, and only some of us are of the mind that your parts will be of any consequence..."

"Clans?" Dracul was slightly impressed that so many of his adversaries could survive the centuries of inadequacy and disuse, "There are more of you?"

The blonde woman sighed forlornly, "Not a great number, I'm afraid. An even smaller number of which would allow such an unholy union to exist," Arianna looked as if she were about to say something to that, so she was hasty to add in, "No matter what your intentions are, nor how short-lived it is. Honestly, I'm a tad bit surprised that you have set aside your personal grudges to work together... After all, wasn't it Moretti that put away Alu-"

"Alucard?! What news of him do you have? Speak!" It was the most passionate and urgent that Arianna had heard Gabriel get, so she had the feeling that this Alucard person was indeed important to him, though how important, she could could not hazard a guess.

She did not understand who he was, but if her father had put him down, then wasn't that a good thing? But if so, they why had Sonja sounded so sad about it? Maybe it wasn't a good thing that her father had done after all... No, her father... her father only did good. It must have been a good thing! But Dracul seemed so intent upon him... Was it possible that maybe her father had been wrong to slay him...? She was so confused, having no idea if she should side with her father, or if she should mourn alongside her partner...

As much as she was loath to admit it, not all vampires were completely evil as she had learned during her travels... Maybe in another life, under different circumstances...

While Arianna mused upon her conflictions and realizations, she barely heard what Sonja was saying to Dracul, "Lucian killed him like a dog in the middle of the day, from what I've heard. Went deep into his lair and staked him straight in the heart. Rumor has it he even kept some of the ashes."

Shoe on the other foot, Dracul turned his attention to Arianna, pulling her into the current situation by the forbidding and tightness in the back of his throat, "Is that true?"

"..." She had no idea if it was or not, nor even what to say to him that he could possibly hear, "I don't know."

"Is it true?!" He repeated, voice growing fainter and more menacing by the second.

She closed her eyes, thinking back as hard as she could, any previous thoughts she might have had about him rapidly evaporating, "My father did fight with an Alucard in the past, but he never would act like such a snake! He had more honor than that! I don't know what happened to him, if he did..." Something dawned on her, "Wait a minute, why do you care? Surely you leeches with your miserable lives have been scrubbed from existence in the past, so why does it matter about one measly little grunt?"

Listening carefully and fully aware of the bond they shared, Sonja had tried to warn Arianna several times, but the little huntress heard none of it, nor saw any of the gestures shot her way, but Dracul did, "Yes, we must all stick together with our own lot. Killing ours is all your kind care about. "

Seeing as they were alone, Sonja saw that it was up to her to step in and try to save the most unlikely of partnerships, well aware that she was responsible for inadvertently starting this fight between what very well could humanity's only hope, "That's not-"

"Let me ask you something; while you ruthlessly track and murder my kind in droves, have you ever stopped to think that we have lives of our own? Families?" He cut her off, specifically asking Arianna.

It still did not come to her what connection Dracul shared Alucard, although the way he had asked her made her feel suddenly like the coldest life-form alive, lower even than dirt, ashamed that he was right, "You're right. I can't speak for all hunters, but I have never stopped to consider that anything not human could in fact be halfway decent. Could be as human as any of us. Have families, friends, hopes, and dreams. I guess spending most of my life so focused on the kill, always thinking that each was gradually leading to you... I never considered what I was slaying." She thought then of her mother, of reading the books her mother kept secret, "There might have been a point once when I wasn't so cold-blooded... but a lot changes. I don't know what kind of relationship you had with this Alucard, but I am sorry I spoke ill of him. If its any consolation, whatever did happen between him and my father, I'm not sure if my father chose the right course of action." She might have gone to elaborate a little more on that, but she felt as if she had said more than enough for the moment.

He wasn't so ready to forgive her, but her apology was sincere, so forgiveness was not impossible, provided that they had not killed one another by that point, "We will speak of this later."

"Riveting as it is to watch you two in your little..." Sensing that it was alright to speak, Sonja paused, mentally toying with the appropriate word, "whatever it is, I think there are much more pressing issues at hand, such as the fact that there are three very powerful beings lurking throughout, just biding their time to strike, each in possession of something very important." She tilted her head almost boredly at the girl, "Thorn should have informed you of it, am I right?"

They probably should have taken the time out to work on their problems in a healthy way, strictly for the sake of their teamwork, but they all knew that there was no time to waste, so that was just going to have to wait. Hopefully in the meantime, they could set it all aside for the greater good...

Arianna nodded, grateful to the other woman that she should distract them with something else, such as the very thing that brought them together in the first place, "The artifact. The old big-wigs told me that a part of my mission was to 'monitor' the 'handling, construction of, and use' of it, but they were really vague as it what it was that I was even supposed to be getting... I bet they don't even know." She looked at her partner in an off-hand kind of way, unable to meet his eye still, "I wouldn't suppose you know?"

In fact, he did not, "..."

Sonja's smile widened at that point, making her look like some kind of demonic cat almost, glad that things were moving on and away from that personal disaster, "I bet you're both happy you met me..."

Arianna interjected under her breath, words not missed, "That remains to be seen."

Ignoring that, the older huntress went on, tone semi-disapproving, "Though honestly, how you made it this far not knowing what you're even after..."

"I wouldn't quite say that..." His voice rang out before his form took shape in the shadows at their backs, dusty grey hood pulled back to reveal his snow-white hair, "Ah, my friend! I see you have made it this far. Well done indeed. And who is this charming creature?" Zobeck turned his attention to Arianna, completely ignoring Sonja as if she weren't even there. Taking her hand, Zobeck very lightly gave it a polite kiss, "Forgive me, but after eons of living, some habits just don't die so easily."

This time it was Gabriel who cut in, pulling her hand out of Death's grasp, 'We've wasted enough time on foolishness! Tells us what you know, Zobeck."

For the first time his eyes shot over to the owner of the castle, "Only a little more than our fair hostess."

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><p>What is...something something... in a name... something something... a man? A miserable little pile of roses sweet! ~ I couldn't pick between quotes, so I just used them both!<p>

Diana is the Roman equivalent of Artemis, just in case anyone was lost by that and thought that Sonja was calling Arianna Diana.

And maybe its super weird to get inspiration from, but I was catching up on Archer (hilarious show in my opinion, but I digress), and I realized just how draggy the whole hate thing is between Gabriel and Aria... Yeesh, even a few chapters back they were getting along better! Well, I guess that's what happens when one takes almost a year to update...

And mawahaaha! I end this chapter on a very evil note! But ignoring that for a second, who else here is super excited for LoS2?!


	15. Chapter Two: Part Eight

The fight silently waging between the vampire and his human helper was suddenly nothing compared the eye battle between Death and the older female hunter. Whatever had transpired between the two of them, it certainly was not forgotten on either's side, nor was it going away on even a temporary scale. Daring to look over at each other, both Gabriel and Arianna seemed to be of a similar mind, wordlessly exchanging that they were glad their relationship was not so bad as to forgo their truce. As painful as it was for them, they could at least set aside their differences to deal with them later. For now, at least...

But after everything was finished? Oh yes, they were certainly going to have words...

"Zobeck." Dracul grew weary of watching the nonverbal battle. Perhaps it was hypocritical in many ways, but even in the midst of everything, the vampire knew that there were more important things at stake than just petty words.

Fixing Sonja with one last glare, the elderly gentleman Death disguised himself as went on, although it was perfectly obvious that their history was not so easy to shove aside. "The artifact you seek is in fact an insignia; the pieces of which will not be easy to assemble. The first piece resides deep within the Gorgon's lair, trapped amongst her various trophies."

Doubting that he could sound any less concerned about their progress, Arianna had to wonder how Gabriel could have come to rely on this scant kind of information, more so on the man that gave it. "Wonderful. And where is this legendary nest?"

It was Sonja who answered this inqurry, "There was a reason you came here - this land is a rather convenient hunting grounds, as it is actually within a dimensional plane. A bridge, if you will. And in many cases, the only way to several of the dark corners the beasts have gone and hid in since humanity lost memory of their existence. The Gorgon was sealed personally by my great-great grandfather, and ever since, it has been a part of my family's job to watch over her. She's a hard one to handle, so you two had best brace yourselves."

Right, so Zobeck knew where to find what they needed, and Sonja was sitting on top of this monster, so why weren't they doing anything about it? Why did it have to come down to herself and Gabriel?

Standing next to her, he could feel the uncertainty and skepticism radiating from her, could hear the increase in her heartbeat as it all began to set in. It was the same way he felt so many years ago, when he could still feel anything. "You're trembling."

But Gabriel wasn't the only one with something say to the hunter - communicating once more in a space that only they could hear each other, Sonja took advantage of being the master of an entire realm, forgotten or not. _You're right, it's not fair that so much rests upon your shoulders, but you have to remember that old saying about fate rarely being conscious of personal fortune. You have to work with something that caused so much devastation, but in doing so, you will open the doors for so many..._

_Something? He may be a great many things, but he isn't just a thing to me. _Turning her attention back to her partner, Arianna shook her head, "I'm not afraid. I'm just not looking forward to having to adjust to another world."

_To_ you? Even inside her mind, the girl could feel the older woman laughing at her, greatly amused by something that didn't even exist between herself and her partner._You're so quick to dismiss any notions of connection to your vampire companion. Perhaps a little too quick. _Sonja suddenly grew grave, now speaking from personal experience. But that was so many years ago now... _I know, being shoved into circumstances like your own can confuse so many lines, and things that you thought you could trust suddenly crumble away. If it comes down to it, just be sure of what decision you make... Some things aren't possible to take back, and if you make enemies of some, you'll end up alone, and everything will be for nothing..._

There wasn't a lot that she could say to Sonja's advise, but there was still one thing she had to question, _You make it sound like you know that something will happen between us. How?_

Her lip quirked up, and the woman's gaze bounced over fleeting towards Zobeck. "Call it personal experience."

Deny it as much as she wanted, Sonja could see that Lucian's daughter was developing feelings for Dracul, and although he was considerably harder to read, she had the hunch that it was a mutual attraction. Despite what the others feared, that wasn't a bad thing entirely, because just maybe - if that girl could jump-start his heart - it could spur on a change of heart that could reshape the course of things... It was a long shot, but maybe the world wasn't going to fall into darkness...

Sending them on their way to replenish their supplies, her trusted servant leading the way, Sonja whispered to Zobeck, "Do you think that they can really do it?"

For a man that stood to loose just as much as the rest of them, it made sense that they would suspend their animosity for the necromancer, but for Sonja, who had had such a tangled past, Death found it quite surprising that she would address him. But then again, perhaps it wasn't so peculiar after all. "They will play their parts. But then, you already know that, don't you?"

Touched by Death, Sonja had gained a limited gift of foresight, and combined with being trapped in this hellish limbo, the shamed huntress had obtained a number of powers that so many of her peers would consider unnatural (a number of the more radical ones going so far as to write it off as grounds for execution), but she had no way of knowing anything for certain. "You know as well as I that nothing is certain."

Considering her silhouette for a moment, Zobeck turned his back to the woman, facing the long line of reliefs. "There will be no place for love when they are presented with that kind of power - The human heart is petty, and Gabriel has already lost one love... There will be nothing left of man but the ash."

"So you believe that they will succumb to the darkness, that they will fail?" She wasn't shocked by his outlook in the slightest. "I disagree."

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><p>I forgot to mention it on the last chapter - damn my eyes - but I also got a last spurt of motivation from the fan power given me by SuperiorDimwit! And why is has no one commented on Arianna's jealousy over Sonja? Wasn't it clear that it was there? Or was that just one epic fail on my part?<p> 


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